Alternate Revolution
by Grand High Idol
Summary: The sequel to "Alternate Machinos". To put it simple, this is basically a war story and an AU fanfic thrown into one. Reviews are appreciated; rating subject to change. Chapter Sixteen: The REAL spark of the revolution! ;)
1. The Hacker's Plot

A depressed robot. A family that fell victim to the dark side. A diabolical villain with a past that could press the greatest sympathy onto the hardest of souls. A general that finally saw the light…but was soon enough plunged deep into the bowels of death, never to be revived. These were the things I saw when I entered that world…that world…the world that one could probably never see unless guided there…guided by the portal that posed as the gates to such a place.

I never expected to see the day when I went there. I never expected to see the day when I finally found a villain that was more diabolical than Hacker, more evil than anyone I'd seen in my days alive, more hatred than anything I'd ever witnessed. It was bloody. It was horrifying. It was barely relaxing…we were always in tension, my friends and I. I myself was imprisoned, beaten, threatened to death. I survived, however, with the help of my friends in that world. If it hadn't been for them I would not be alive to day, not writing these words on paper, not thinking about what it must be like back there, with all the changes—horribly negative changes—that they had went through.

The name brought chills to my spine. Machinos. The name that every citizen feared, because the figure behind it was a dictator, one of power, hatred, anger, greed…he was a walking sin. He was the tool of the Devil himself. He could not go anywhere without hurting or killing someone. And I know, because I survived…I survived…and I was lucky to do so, given the chances.

You can understand why I was so grateful to return to my own dimension, my own place, the things that I had always known for eons. I never expected to return. I never expected for anyone else to witness what I had witnessed, so long ago…so long ago. I never intended to ever walk the soil of that world, soar through the singing air, dive beneath the rapid waves of that area ever again. It had been so long, I had nearly forgotten all about it. But it hadn't forgotten me, nor any of the others. I somehow knew that it would return.

And it did…the unthinkable happened…and my life was never to be the same again, even though I had made it back alive…I was scarred…scarred forever…by the blood, hatred, anger, of the war that was soon to become carved into my soul for my remaining years…and it has begun. Now.

—_Digit LeBoid_

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

By Grand High Idol

Disclaimer: I do not own Cyberchase, nor any of its characters.

CHAPTER I: The Hacker's Plot

The unknowingness of the incident was at first highly apparent among the one who had caused it to be in the first place: that evil, vain, green man, the Hacker. Of course, he never had intended for war to break out among a dimension opposite his own, just a simple plan to get the Cybersquad out of his hair for good. And that was where the real trouble had begun, truth to be told.

He had begun his studies with the openings of dimensions a few weeks ago, in the privacy of his own ship. Buzz and Delete had stayed out of his business for the most part, and he was happy with that, but what frustrated him was that he could never understand the passages about alternate worlds, even though they were typed and handwritten in plain English. Time and time again, after yet another defeat by the Cybersquad, he would go back to the study of his ship and page through the books again, with more determination toward getting rid of them for good. He had never even considered the useful purpose of alternate dimensions until he had heard of the kids going missing for over a week straight. That brought his mind to the presence of time, which led to the wonder of the parallel universe, and it just went from there.

He was now sitting in the study yet again, an ancient book in one hand, reading the passages written years ago by Old World philosophers. Little was told about the actual way to activate the portal that took oneself into such a world, but he was still trying, of course. He now read over a certain passage with great curiosity, if not confusion:

_It is believed by many that parallel worlds can be reached, if not by time, but by mind. Such musings have led to the ancient uncovering of the legendary "Portal of Forty", a portal believed to be old as time that is said to lead into another world…an opposite world…a world that has not yet caught up to ours via the items we possess. While I write these very words, they may still be pounding the stones to light the fire._

The portal was activated eons ago by a philosopher entitled Pagmius Entrona. While the man did not actually enter the portal, he discovered the very secret to unlocking the portal: by the peace of mind within us all, and the spiritual powers that one possesses.

"A great lot of help that does," Hacker scoffed, closing the book abruptly and tossing it onto the table adjacent to him. "'The peace of mind within us all'…hah. That sounds like a message you'd find on a fortune cookie, or perhaps a meditation center." He considered a bit before shaking his head. "No help. No help it does to me at all." He propped his feet up on the stool nearest him. "I might as well be better off with a mere child's comic book."

It was at that time that Delete, who had been playing on the floor with his pet rabbit, George, looked up and finally commented on his boss's study. "Gee, boss, you don't seem to be havin' much luck finding out about stuff like that."

"I do think that's rather apparent, you delirious duncebucket," Hacker snapped back at him, his eyes narrowed in annoyance. "And I don't think that you or Buzz would be of much help to me right now. I'd like you to stay out of my business."

"Ya know, 'dat stuff does sound pretty deep 'ta me," Buzz, who was sitting on a nearby stool, commented. "I mean, 'dat thing about 'spiritual powers' sounds like something you'd find on a fortune teller place…although I don't think 'dat 'dey have spiritual powers, either. But I once saw something on TV about a witch who could connect with 'da—"

Upon hearing the word "witch" a spark went off in the man's head; he jumped to his feet, startling both of his henchmen. "That's it!" Hacker remarked, in a 'eureka' type fashion. "In order to connect with a parallel world I need to connect with someone who possesses the spiritual powers I don't." He sniggered to himself. "And I know just the person who can tell me."

Without further hesitation, he walked briskly out of the room, leaving Buzz and Delete alone in a rather high state of confusion. Buzz was still slightly appalled at Hacker actually listening to him, and Delete was momentarily confused with the entire incident itself. He was now staring at the door, dumbfounded, as George sniffed the carpeting, then bounded out of the room. Delete took no attention to this; neither did Buzz, for that matter.

After a momentary pause, Buzz finally looked at his younger brother and said, still sounding rather confused, "What was 'dat all about?"

"I dunno," Delete replied, still sounding rather far-off. "I think he's gonna call someone up or somethin'. You must've said something that gave him the idea to do that."

"What did I say?" Buzz asked.

"I dunno…" Delete repeated.

Buzz scoffed. "A lot of help you are."

"Sorry…"

"You'd better—oh, never mind it." He jumped down from the stool. "'Dis conversation is going nowheres. I'm going to go see what 'da boss is planning on doing. You can stay here and stare at 'da wall like a ninny for all I care."

"Hey, I'm not a ninny!" Delete retorted angrily, getting to his feet and walking out after Buzz, who had left before he could listen to a word out of his younger brother. Delete was still acting annoyed as they walked down the hallway, then reached the doorway to the main control room and leaned over slightly, almost in an eavesdropping intention, in time to see their boss talking on the phone, a rather casual look on his face. Of course, Buzz and Delete knew that he kept that look only when he was calling a certain someone…

Coincidentally, they entered at the same moment the person on the other line picked up. The voice was muted to all but Hacker, but they could easily tell whom he was calling without the help of the voice. "Hello, my dearest Wicked. Ah, how are you?"

"Just fine, thank you for asking, Hackie-poo," the voice on the other line replied. "You normally don't call me often. What's the purpose of this call, besides the fact that you missed the lovely sound of my voice?"

Hacker paused a moment, then replied, "Oh, nothing much, Wicked. Just that I need your help with a few things as of late." He waited for an answer, and when he received none, he thought it was best to continue. "You don't happen to know any other citizens such as yourself that possess spiritual powers, do you?"

"No, I don't know any personally, I'm sorry to say…however, I do know where to find a few. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, nothing serious, really," Hacker replied casually, leaning back in his chair. "I just found a new way to get those pesky earth children out of my world for good, and continue on with my world domination of cyberspace."

"Involving spiritual powers?"

"Yes, my dear Wicked. I need to find a person of great spiritual mind that can open up portals—but not the usual portals that transport from here to another place beyond. Portals that can transport to an entirely different universe—one of no possible return. If this goes through, and if those brats cannot find a way to return, Motherboard is left defenseless and cyberspace is as good as mine. I can finally finish what I intended to do eons ago." He cleared his throat abruptly. "Now, where exactly did you say that I can find these spiritual beings?"

"In the darker area of Castleblanca," Wicked replied. "If you look past the shop that sells potions, you'll find a small tent in the center of the marsh that pays homage to a fortune-telling booth. Don't be fooled; it is none of the sort. Go up there and demand to see Globus Jayon. She possesses incredible spiritual power, or so the rumors have stated, and there just might be a chance that she could help you with your plan."

Hacker took time to let this sink in before replying. "I shall go there this evening," he told her, shifting the phone to his shoulder. "You have been most helpful toward me, Wicked. I do appreciate all that you have done."

"It's all worth it, believe me, Hackie," she replied sweetly, before abruptly hanging up her end of the line. Hacker narrowed his eyes as the line went dead, then set the phone down and, getting up from his chair, began to walk over toward the main control panel for the Grim Wreaker ship. Sitting in his Recharger Chair, Buzz and Delete caught his eye at once; he cast a glare at them before beckoning them over toward him.

The two robots looked at each other, then, fearing that they were in some sort of trouble, reluctantly walked over to where their boss was sitting. Hacker watched them as they stopped in front of him, then he said, "Charge me up at once, you duncebuckets. We have some unfinished business to take care of."

"Oh, sure, boss, right away," Buzz replied obediently, giving a quick salute before turning around, but as he and Delete headed toward the main lever Buzz muttered to his brother, "Did he even _start_ his business to begin with?"

"I dunno, but people always say that when they want something to be done fast," Delete replied, as he stopped beside the lever; Buzz hopped up onto the panel. "It doesn't really mean anything, really…"

"Will you stop turning everything into a conversation!" Buzz snapped at him, right before pulling the lever down.

From her seating in the canvas tent, Globus Jayon could sense a presence other than herself arriving in the darkness of this particular area in Castleblanca. She wasn't surprised; more than often she would sense a presence within the room when she was about to help a visitor in need, although they had not yet arrived. Such was the gift that her spiritual powers had bestowed upon her, and she was sure to heed it wisely. Brushing a strand of brunette hair out of her face, she looked up just in time to see three figures standing in the doorway.

There seemed to be a slight glint in her eye as she looked up at the one in front. "Please," she stated, gesturing toward a set of silk pillows arranged on the floor in front of her, "Do come in." The one in front—now revealed to be Hacker—slowly came into the room, then stood next to her for a few moments before finally kneeling to the ground, his arms crossed. Buzz and Delete, who looked rather nervous about actually meeting someone of incredible mental powers, were standing in the tent flaps, refusing to budge for a brief moment, but the woman noticed them at once and made another gesture with her hand toward the remaining pillows. "Come in, my dear friends. There is nothing to fear of me if you respect the worlds beyond your own."

This remark frightened Buzz and Delete a bit more, and at first they thought about shying away and leaving their boss to do his own business. But they could see that Globus wasn't about to take this for an answer; thus, they both sighed, cautiously entered, then slowly took their seats on either side of their boss as Globus looked them over, as if determining something.

The silence was broken soon enough. "I do believe that you know why I came here in the first place," Hacker informed her. "As you know, I am _the_ Hacker, soon-to-be overlord of cyberspace…but, of course, not without your help, my dear." He looked her directly in the eye. "I need a powerful being to help me access a certain portal."

"Do tell," Globus replied, although she didn't sound very interested in what he was saying. "You do know that you can find portals all over cyberspace if you know where to look, am I correct?"

"It's not that kind of portal!" Hacker snapped at her. "I need your help in accessing a different portal…one that leads into another world. I don't suppose that you already know about the Portal of Forty, do you?"

The very mention of these words made Globus snap to attention. Now that he had caught her interest, he knew, Hacker decided to continue. "I'm planning on accessing that portal in order to get a certain group of obstacles out of my path…living, breathing obstacles. No matter what I do to try and get rid of them, they always manage to pull through some way or another. That's why I decided to end it for good. Once they're in another world, there's no coming back." He stopped to take a breather. "That's why I came to you, m'lady. I need you to access the portal for me using your mental powers."

After this short little speech silence befell the tent once more. Globus looked at him for a few moments, then finally folded her hands across her low desk and said, "Access to such a portal would be long and grueling for my mind alone, and I don't know where these 'obstacles' you speak of currently are. Thus, there isn't much I can do to help you now."

"Blast it!" Hacker snapped at her, pounding a fist on the front of her desk. "I came here to receive some help, and I'm not leaving until I get it! It's either you help me with my plan, or you can kiss your sorry little residence here goodbye! Now, what's it going to be?"

Globus was silent for a few moments yet again; she didn't appear fazed by the man's intentions to force her into helping him. After a few moments, she finally reached toward an area around her neck and said, "Very well, then. If you are as desperate as you appear to be, I suppose I can take this time to make an exception. But you must put some effort into what I have planned as well, or else you can be sure that your plan will fail. Do I make myself clear on that one?"

"Fine, fine, now just tell me what you have in mind."

"Very well." She withdrew her hand from around her neck, and dropped something onto the desk, in front of Hacker, Buzz and Delete. Looking down at it, the three could see that it was a small pendant, nothing more than a smoky-colored orb attached to a golden chain. While Hacker was staring at this with a rather puzzled and annoyed look, trying to figure out what this meant, Globus told him, still sounding as calm as she ever was, "There is enough power in this one little orb to conjuncture any type of portal from its current location. However, as I said before, your participation counts as much as this orb's." She slowly reached toward the orb, then held it up in front of them. "The power in this necklace can only be activated by the mind. Thus, in order to make the portal appear you must think a certain string of words, or else your visit will have been in vain." She slowly dropped it into the green man's hand. "And remember, it will only work once. So don't run any tests, and don't try it out until you are sure that the timing is right. Am I clear on that one, as well?"

"Yes," Hacker responded, his fingers closing around the precious item. He then got up from his spot on the floor and turned around; Buzz and Delete followed. "I shall be taking my leave now," he told her, before walking out of the tent completely. Globus stared after him in a disapproving gaze as he disappeared; she then heard the sound of the Grim Wreaker's motors starting up. Sighing, she shook her head.

"I hope he knows what he's doing," she muttered to herself, before getting up from her spot to fluff the pillows.

Upon arrival back at the Northern Frontier, Hacker, still clutching the pendant tightly in his hand, got up from his spot at the control panel and strutted across the room, at the time placing the pedant itself around his neck. As Buzz and Delete watched from their places—which were at the table—Hacker looked at himself in the reflection of one of the generators, then winked at himself before turning to face the two.

"Now that I have a great source of spiritual power in my hands, nothing will be able to stop me," he informed the two. "But it's likely that Motherboard will find out about this source—she always seems to before I can carry out my plans—and send those pesky brats over here to stop me. Well, it won't happen this time."

"Yeah, but boss, in order to keep 'dose kids from swiping it you'd have to use it pretty fast," Buzz pointed out. "Heck, Motherboard sees _everything_ that goes on around here for some reason; I'll bet she's found out about Globus Jayon and sent 'dem over to Control Central right now!"

"That fast?" Delete asked, appalled.

Hacker smacked his face, then shouted at Buzz, "I know that, you duncebucket!" Buzz looked taken aback for a few moments as Hacker continued, fingering the pendant, "And I know that she'd send the kids over the moment I began using this. Thus, I'm going to do the only thing that I can think of doing right now."

"Gee, what's that, boss?" Delete asked curiously.

Hacker growled. "I'm going to use this pendant to open the Portal of Forty inside the portal that takes the kids into cyberspace so often. It'll probably hold long enough in order for them to get sucked in as they are sent through. And if Motherboard doesn't know about it, it's likely that either Dr. Marbles or Digit will." He shook his head. "That blasted bird's been acting like a lunatic ever since the time he went missing for a week."

"Yeah, but…do you even think 'dat's possible?" Buzz asked. "I mean, to open a portal inside another one? I don't think 'dat's ever been done before, to my knowledge."

"Well, it's about to be done," Hacker retorted, glaring at him. He then removed his hand from the pendant. "Now stand back, you duncebuckets, I'm going to put this thing to work. Let's see, here…concentrate…" He closed his eyes and placed his fingers on either side of his head, as if in deep meditation. Buzz and Delete watched him curiously. "Concentrate…portal…send it to the portal…"

The two robots continued to stare as the pendant around their boss's neck began to glow a dull green, but soon enough it quickly shifted to bright yellow. Hacker continued to meditate, although it was clear that he seemed pleased with how this was going, and the two robots looked up, in time to see that the power in the main control room was slowly beginning to die out…then a huge stream of light began to suddenly appear from the ceiling…

Deep in the woods, it was completely dark, and the sun was just beginning to dawn over them. Nonetheless, they continued to peacefully sleep in the bed they had formed from a pile of leaves, none of them bothering to stir. But, after a few moments, one of the group of four finally and slowly opened one eye, then sat up to face the night sky above her.

She looked up at the stars as she thought to herself. To her knowledge, over three years had passed since they had come into their dimension, but she could not forget them, even though her comrades had. The African-American girl with the hair bun…the boy with the red hair and the backpack to match…the Latino girl with the glasses and the smart mouth…and the bird with the red cap and the timid manner. She had never gotten them out of her head, even after so long. And, like Digit, she had the suspicion that she would see them again…maybe not now, but someday in the future, they would come back.

A sudden gust of wind then blew by her, blowing her matted black hair into her face and nearly startling her out of her leaves. She almost fell to the ground but quickly regained her balance, in time to see a group of leaves picked up by the wind float away and disappear into the blackened treetops in the distance. This caught her by surprise; it was supposedly too humid for there to even be wind in this area at all.

She glanced around cautiously, then slowly got to her feet. Something wasn't right.

Reaching down toward the ground for her bow and arrows, she slowly reared her head toward the direction that the wind had come from, then looked around a few more times. She didn't know what had caused it. It was natural, so it couldn't have been Machinos…it was too sudden for a Blind Tracker…a few of the beings she had known in this universe were fast enough to conjuncture up a gust of wind when they passed by, but she knew that they couldn't possibly be in any part of this forest…it was beginning to worry her more by the second.

At first she thought about waking up Matthew, who was lying on the ground next to her; he took no notice of the sudden wind. But after a few moments she thought otherwise; if she woke up Matthew, how would she explain why she had been so cautious about a simple gust of wind? Also, Matthew would probably say that she worried too much, which made her absolutely livid like no other. No, Matthew wouldn't do. Not for this…

She slowly scanned the area again, looking for any signs of suspicion, but it was hopeless. She knew that there was no other living soul in the area besides her and her comrades, and it was futile to even try and look for a sign. She sighed, then slowly set down her weapons and looked up toward the stars, thinking that it was just a simple summer wind, and was about to lie back down again when...

_FWHOOSH_!

"GAH!" she yelled in surprise as a huge, pink-colored portal suddenly opened up in the center of the sky, acting very much like a highly violent vacuum and sucking up anything that was within range of itself. Several trees were ripped out of the ground from their roots; the water in the creek was unsteady; even the grass was slowly becoming plucked out. Of course, this startled both Matthew and Zeny out of their sleep; they leapt to their feet in surprise as they stared at the monstrosity in front of them.

"Good Lord, Jacqueline!" Matthew exclaimed, backing away as the portal tried to rip at his clothing. "Where in cyberspace did this come from!"

"Look, Matthew, I have no idea where it came from, okay?" Jacqueline snapped back at him, her eyes narrowed. "I was just looking around and it suddenly appeared. There was nothing I could do about it."

"You know, you didn't have to be—" Matthew began, but he was cut short as he noticed that Codebird was missing. His eyes widening, he looked around him, then finally looked up at the portal entrance. There was nothing there, either, but he thought he knew for sure where exactly Codebird had gone. "Oh no you don't!" he shouted, running toward the portal, ignoring the fact that it was slowly pulling him in as is. "You aren't going to try and claim him again! Not if I can help it!"

"Matthew, don't be an idiot!" Jacqueline shouted after him, but it was too late; Matthew had already made a running leap for the portal. She sighed, then ran after him and leapt as well, grabbing him by the ankles before he could go in completely. Of course, this proved to be hopeless, the vacuum was too strong for a mere 16-year-old girl to withstand. In a split second, she had been pulled in as well.

Zeny, who was watching all of this, looked on in terror as her three friends were pulled into the swirling mass of color, then, unable to leave her friends to die (she was always worrying about them when they left), she ran toward the portal and, with a grunt of determination, leapt in just as the colors began to fade from view entirely.

"What in cyberspace!" Hacker remarked as he stared at the blast of pink light that swirled at the ceiling of the ship, clutching onto a nearby glass containment tube to keep himself from being sucked up into the vacuum. "I specifically said that I wanted it to go to the kids' portal! Why in the name of love did it open up here! This is not what I intended!"

"Are you sure 'dat you were concentrating on 'da right place, boss?" Buzz asked; he was now on the floor and gripping onto the table leg with all his might. "Or was 'dere just a slight miscalculation portal-wise?"

"Can it!" Hacker snapped at him as he gripped the containment tube tighter. "Just silence yourself until this whole incident is over, and I'll gladly spare you!"

"Oh, great," Buzz muttered to himself; he was just about to roll his eyes when he noticed that Delete, who was too stunned to try anything logical, was slowly being pulled toward the portal itself. He was trying to resist, but it didn't do much good; the vacuum seemed to be more forceful than he would ever be. Delete, frantic, reached for the control panel for something to grab onto, but by then it was futile. With a yelp of surprise, he was lifted off the ground feet-first, and his lower half managed to make its way into the portal before Buzz, being the older brother figure that he was, let go of the table leg and leapt upward, managing to grab Delete's shirtsleeve.

"Buzz, what are you doing!" Delete exclaimed, over the roar of the vacuum.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Buzz snapped back at him, trying to force his younger brother's lower half out of the portal. "I'm trying to—umph—get you out of 'dis thing!"

"Buzz, you do know that you can't do it, right?" Delete asked, as a few more inches of his body sank into the portal's swirling color mass. "I mean, I don't want to make you mad or anything, but you're being pulled in, too, you know."

"So, I'll grab onto something!" Buzz said stubbornly.

"There's nothing to grab onto!"

"Oh…boy…" Buzz replied meekly, finally realizing that this was indeed true; he was a foot off the ground and thus could not grab anything. Looking over at his boss, who was making no effort to help whatsoever one last time, he looked up at the portal in time to see Delete disappear entirely. Sighing, he knew that he was to be next; he didn't bother to let go, for he knew that it was already too late. He closed his eyes, let go of Delete, and braced himself—

Just as the swirling mass of the portal sucked him into the abyss.


	2. A Negative Encounter

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ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

CHAPTER II: A Negative Encounter

That was the last thing that went through Buzz's head before there was light. Bright, white light, and lots of it. He couldn't think. He could barely breathe. He was blind in this bright tunnel. And what more was that he could do nothing about it. He could only hope that he wasn't in some sort of death vortex, and that Delete was still with him and still alive, for that matter. He could feel the light around him for about five minutes, then he went through something thick—it came to the equivalent texture of yogurt—before he felt himself falling…falling…

"_OW_!"

He gave a loud shout of pain as he landed hard on his side, then fell over onto the ground. For a while he didn't even want to get up—at first thoughts he believed that he had broken his arm at the socket—but he came to his senses when he realized that he was _not_, in any way, lying on the floor of the Wreaker, nor anywhere that even felt like it. Groaning once, he slowly opened one eye, then looked around, with rather blurred vision, at his surroundings.

Now knowing for sure that he was not in the Wreaker, a shudder of dread ran through his body before he quickly staggered to his feet, still staring in fear and awe at the things around him. He was in such a panic at first that he didn't even notice Delete lying near him, whimpering in supposed pain as he clutched his arm tightly with his free hand. Buzz, upon hearing him, stopped gaping at the rugged woodlands surrounding them and went over to find out what was wrong with the robot.

"Delete," he said, trying to hide the mortal dread in his voice, "if you want me to find out what's wrong with 'dat, you're going to need to remove your hand…okay?"

"Can't," Delete replied, his voice tight as he wrapped his fingers around his arm tighter.

"What do you mean 'can't!'" Buzz snapped at him, for a moment forgetting the state that they were in. "Look, before I do anything else I need to look at it. And in case you haven't noticed, we're in 'da middle of nowhere, in a place I don't even recognize, and I've been in more cybersites 'dan you! Now, let me look at it!"

"No."

"Delete!" Buzz shouted impatiently. Usually Delete would respond to such an action, but when he made no effort to meet Buzz's desires the stocky robot became highly annoyed. Gritting his teeth, he replied, bending down, "Fine, 'den. If you won't let me see it, 'den I guess I'll have to force you." He placed both hands on his brother's tightly clamped one. "I'm giving you one last chance before I pry your fingers off. Now, do you want to cooperate, here?"

There was a short pause, then Delete finally replied, his voice laced with fear, "I-I'm fine, Buzz, really. You don't need to look at it. I just…I just bruised it a bit, that's all."

Despite how convincing he sounded, Buzz didn't buy this. "Oh, is 'dat so?" he replied, raising an eyebrow. "Well, it shouldn't be too hard for me to see it 'den, would it?" Delete once again made no response. "Okay, if 'dat's how you want to be…" He then reached down and began to pry Delete's hand loose from his arm. Delete tried to apply as much force as Buzz was to keep him from eyeing what he had intended to hide, but Buzz was apparently stronger. Upon prying the robot's hand loose, Buzz sighed, then at once caught sight of the palm of Delete's hand—along with his. Both were drenched in small rivers of black-colored blood.

Buzz tensed for a moment before finally settling his gaze on the arm, which, sure enough, had been the source of the bleeding. He could now see why Delete had intended to conceal it from view—it had been gashed open in a long cut from the shoulder blade to the elbow, and rather deep, at that. Blood was continuing to cascade from it like a waterfall and form small, dark puddles on the grass below them. Buzz gasped, then clapped one hand to his mouth—it was the most that he could do at the time to prevent himself from vomiting.

"Oh, dear God, Delete," he finally managed to choke after a few moments of stifled silence. "What did you _do_ to it!"

"I didn't _do_ anything to it," Delete whimpered, placing his hand back onto the bleeding gash. "I—I—it must've been something up there…" He looked up toward the treetops currently over their heads. "I must've cut it when I fell…it must've snagged on one of those branches…oh God, Buzz…it hurts so much…"

"We have to find someone 'dat can tell us where the heck we are," Buzz remarked, looking around him fearfully and cautiously. "I don't recognize any of 'dese areas…something's wrong. Something's definitely wrong." He looked back down at Delete, then grabbed him by his uninjured arm in an attempt to help him to his feet. "We need to find someone to fix you up, 'den we need to get a logical explanation as to why 'dis happened."

"But we don't know where anything is!" Delete remarked as he slowly staggered to his feet, which was hard considering that both arms were at one side. "It could take us hours to find anyone that could help! Do you remember what the boss said? I'll bet you anything we've been transported into a whole 'nother universe!"

"I know that," Buzz told him. "But I also know 'dat if we just stand here, we ain't gonna get nowheres. Now, come on…it wasn't your leg 'dat was damaged; you can still walk, right?"

"Yes…"

"Good. Now, come on, get moving. We need to find someone here before it gets dark or something." He gave Delete a shove in the back. "I don't like 'dis place. I have a feeling 'dat we might be attacked or something."

Delete took a few steps forward as a result of the shove, then looked back at Buzz before giving a deep sigh and beginning to walk through the trees. Buzz followed him, looking around cautiously for any signs of danger; even though he knew that there was apparently no one other than them in the area, he couldn't shake the feeling of discomfort from his mind.

If Buzz had known that the discomfort in truth was a result of what was about to actually happen, he would've thought otherwise before trying to find his way out. For, over a nearby hill, no more than ten yards away, a group of three or four dark, shadowy figures sat crouched behind the grassy slope, their white eyes narrowed; some even had their teeth bared. The one in front was clutching a bow and arrow in its hands; the others wielded swords. Upon noticing Buzz and Delete land in the distance, they immediately snapped to attention.

Originally sent out to train a few of the newer recruited Blind Trackers, they hadn't expected something like this. They were too busy to have seen the portal open, and they couldn't have cared less when the two first landed. But now that they were actually maneuvering…well, this was an entirely different story in their case. After a few moments of silence, the one nearest the side finally hissed, its eyes narrowing, "_Interlopers_."

"Don't jump to conclusions," the one beside him snapped. "We don't even know where these things came from. And by truth, even though every inch of these grounds belong to, of course, Machinos, we can't judge that they're actually trying to invade the property itself. This is a populated woodland area."

"Bah, you always take the good side," the next one huffed. He made a threatening gesture with his fist. "I say that we kill 'em. Good as nothing that we haven't seen any action all day."

"In truth," the one that had made the correction replied, nodding and breaking out into a rather toothy grin. "It would be a good idea to take care of them…they have some kind of odd air about them that I'm not at all comfortable with."

"Should we ambush, or attack from a distance?"

"I say attack from a distance. We don't really have much choice as is. You recall what happened to the previous Riders who ambushed a foreign group, am I not correct?" He turned to the one in front; the one wielding the arrows. "Take both of them down, if you would be so kind."

"Which one goes down first?"

The figure shot a quick glance out at the two, who had halted in place and were now looking around the area with a somewhat cautious attire, then looked back at the other. "The one nearest us looks wounded. And you know our policy—the wounded are always the first to fall." He looked out at Delete, then narrowed his eyes and growled, almost determined, "Shoot him."

The figure nodded, then placed one of the arrows in the bow, aimed it upward in Delete's direction, then closed one eye, pulled it back, and shot. With uncanny accuracy, the arrow had missed all other obstacles and ripped into Delete almost instantly. Of course, since Delete's left arm had been the one that had been cut, the arrow struck the open gash dead center, causing the robot to scream in agony, then collapse on the ground in unspeakable pain.

Buzz was at first shocked by Delete's sudden scream, then heard the _THUNK_ as he fell to the ground. Looking over, he saw Delete in an almost fetal position, shuddering intensely and rubbing the open cut, which had begun to bleed more heavily now. He was about to turn around and try to get him back up when he heard another sound beside the soft whimpers of pain coming from Delete, and thus turned around out of curiosity.

At first he could barely see the shapes that were coming near him, but he yelped as a large black shape shot over his head, then landed a few yards away from them and slowed to a stop. Looking at it, Buzz could now see that it was a rather large horse, unlike any he had ever seen in his life, and atop it—that was what frightened him the most. The rider paid an uncanny resemblance to Delete, even though it was pitch black, had pupil-less eyes, and had a much more evil air about it.

Buzz's mouth dropped open slightly, then he looked over toward his surrounding areas as three more Riders, whose horses and figures appeared identical to the first, landed around him. He backed up a few steps as they leered down at him, then turned around—only to face another Rider on its horse. Realizing that he was surrounded, he shuddered in dread, then looked around him, his eyes still wide and his mouth still slightly open in shock.

_Oh, Lordy_, he thought to himself as his gaze continued to dart from Rider to Rider. He took another step backward. _These guys look exactly like Delete…but that's impossible! They look almost exactly alike…this can't be happening. This just can't. It's too far-fetched…_

He brought both his hands to his head, as if in a state of madness. _I know what's happening here…heh, heh, they thought that they could actually make me believe this…this can't be real. It has to be a figment of my imagination. Yeah, that's it. The light's gotten to me and now I'm having hallucinations. Nothing more. It's nothing more than a mere hallucination…_

One of the Riders finally stopped leering at him, then reached near his side and slowly unsheathed his sword—slow enough for the glimmer of the sunlight to catch the blade edge. Buzz stared at this action in mortal dread, but he wasn't about to give in to that just yet. He was continuing to hold both sides of his head, sweat beginning to drip down one side as he continued to scream in his mind: _It's not real_. _It's not real. It's not real…_

The Rider grinned at Buzz's show of mental struggle, then completely unsheathed his sword and slowly drew it up toward the top of his head. Guiding his horse a few steps closer, he allowed the sword to meet the air, then raised it point-down over his head, in a notion that suggested that he was about to stab him—or, rather, stab someone else…

Buzz looked up at the Rider, then finally backed up completely against Delete, feeling rather faint due to the pressure placed on his mentality…the Rider drew closer…somehow, he knew that this was no hallucination. Unless the blade passed through him, he knew that he was dead for sure. Delete could do nothing. He himself could do nothing. Refusing to meet the pleasure of the Riders by screaming in mortal dread (which he was apparently feeling at this time) he shivered violently, then shut both eyes and brought his hands over his head, preparing for the blow…

Further away, nearer to the creek (about during the time that Delete had been shot), all appeared to be still in the depths of the water…that is, until a few bubbles rose to the surface, then a brilliant ebony figure finally surfaced with a splash of water, sputtering as it threw its head back. Wiping the excess water from its eyes, it coughed a few times, then began to wade near the edge of the creek. At first one might have thought that it was going to leave the water, but instead it stopped at the edge, slicked its dark shock of bangs back, then called toward a nearby rock, "Binky! Where's my clothing!"

Atop the rock, a bright green and rather haggard looking cat, who was busy sunning itself atop the rock, opened one eye in the direction of the creek, then mumbled to itself before slowly raising its upper body up and looking over toward the figure. "I told you, Ruben, you set your clothing over near that pine! Do I have to remind you of everything?"

"Ha, ha," Ruben replied skeptically; he then waded over near the spot where the pine was and grabbed a tattered white shirt from one of the jutting branches. Wiping his face with it, he then slowly surfaced from the creek, pulling the shirt on as he did so. "Must you be so annoyed with everything, Binx?"

"I apologize, it's just my way of living," Binky replied, flipping herself over onto her back as Ruben finished clothing himself. He then tossed his head back and walked over near the creek, as so to gaze at his reflection as he took care of his head.

Ruben Felinus, after living in the forest with nothing but a cat and a robot for confidants, along with having to hunt for nearly everything he possessed, had become a rather muscular and athletic creature at the age of fifteen. His masculine build clearly showed through his garments, and for some puzzling reason the fur at the back of his head had grown to the length where it reached the middle of his back, much like a human's. His black bangs fell in front of his head, and due to the lack of shaving—or clipping, for that matter—around the area, he had been cursed with a slight goatee.

Binky paused in sunning herself to look up at Ruben, who was now kneeling by the creek and tying his hair back into the ponytail he had worn it in for over a year. "Ruben, I really wish you'd let me clip your hair," she scorned, shaking her head. "You'd look silly around other men such as yourself with that."

"Binx, I'm just fine with how I look, thanks," Ruben replied, finally succeeding in tying his "fur" into the required ponytail and tossing his head back. "Besides, there's hardly anyone in this forest as is, if you don't count the animals. Who's going to see me?"

"Well, it's not so much as—" Binky began to state, but she was drowned out by a loud shriek in the distance. Halting her speech abruptly, she shut her mouth, then looked out toward the area of woodland where the scream had originated from, her eyes wide. Ruben noticed this, too; he stopped what he was doing and whipped around toward the area in which Binky was looking as well.

"What the heck was that!" he exclaimed in shock.

"I don't know," Binky told him, shaking her head. "It sounded almost like a dying rabbit. Do you think that it was possibly an injured animal—?"

"No, Binky," Ruben replied, getting to his feet. "I don't think it was an animal at all. It sounds human. Someone must've been injured recently." He looked toward the direction of the rock. "We're going to need to find out what's going on. I don't like this…" He then brought his fingers to his mouth and whistled. "Macbeth!"

Almost immediately after he blew the whistle there was the sound of hooves on the grass, then a black-and-white, splotched horse finally leapt out of the grove adjacent to the rock and ran over toward Ruben, finally slowing to a halt in front of him. Ruben wasted no time in leaping atop the horse's back, then snatching his feline companion up from the rock and tossing her onto the neck. Binky was a bit taken aback, but she had no time to state a complaint, for as soon as she landed Ruben tugged back on the horse's reins. The horse reared up and whinnied, then dropped down onto all four legs before tearing off along the creek bed.

Ruben, over the years, had become an expert horseman, and thus guided Macbeth successfully to the location of the attack. At seeing Buzz and Delete he had second thoughts about going in and snatching them up from the circle—the Dark Riders during their ambushes, he knew, could be very hostile with interference. On the other hand, it was his job to protect other residents from the Riders, so he figured that he had no other choice. Drawing in a short breath through his teeth, he picked up speed and, without further hesitation, burst through the circle, startling the Rider with the blade and nearly succeeding in knocking it out of his hand. Binky seemed to know where Ruben was getting at; as he snatched up the injured Delete, she reached down and snatched up Buzz.

Buzz gave a yelp of surprise as he was lifted up off the ground, then thrown onto the back of a horse he was none too familiar with. Ruben, still holding onto the reins with one hand, slung the now half-conscious Delete over his shoulder and adjusted his hold on the reins yet again, at the same time trying to keep the wounded creature balanced.

The Riders, after recovering from the shock of Ruben's sudden entrance, realized that the rider atop the horse was none other than a member of the Felinus family—that and they could sight out Macbeth from other woodland horses anytime. Growling angrily, the Rider with the blade sheathed it back into his belt, then snapped the reins on his own iron-gray horse and began to pursue him. The other Riders stared after him for a moment, then followed suite.

Buzz was still overcome with shock at what had just happened, but when he finally came to his senses, he looked up at Ruben and said, over the wind, "Who 'da heck are you! What are you doing here!"

"I'll answer those later," Ruben replied, sounding rather pressured by the situation. "Just hold on and keep silent for now until I find a way to get you two out of this mess."

Buzz was still uneasy, but he obeyed Ruben's orders and held onto the horse as Ruben guided it in-between the trees, weaving an elaborate path as so to throw the Riders off of their trail somewhat. Of course, this rarely worked for them; the Riders were still in hot pursuit and were easily gaining on them. Ruben turned his head only once to check on how far ahead they were, and upon seeing them he apparently wasn't at all happy with the situation.

"God," he huffed to himself as he guided the horse over a rather large boulder. "Can't anyone come into these woods without getting attacked by the Dark Riders first? This is hopeless. This is really…"

It was then that he noticed the ledge, the infamous, jutting cliff that he recalled coming across years earlier, out of the corner of his eye. Recalling a story that he had heard some time back, he smiled triumphantly to himself, then tugged the reins to one side. Macbeth obeyed the command and made a sharp turn in the direction of the ledge, scuffing up dirt and grass from the ground as she did so, then galloped toward the cliff at full speed. Ruben stuck his tongue out in concentration, then closed his eyes and, right when Macbeth reached the edge, tugged back as hard as he could.

Macbeth knew this command well enough. Whinnying, she kicked off the edge and soared through the air, over an estimated 200-foot drop, until she landed rather forcefully on the other side a few seconds later. Ruben gave a whoop of triumph, then allowed the horse to canter a few more seconds before slowing her to a trot and eventually halting her entirely. He then turned around to see if the Riders had dared to follow.

At seeing what lay in front of him, he gave another, almost mocking, whoop of triumph; the Riders had halted at the ledge and were staring across it with bewildered looks on their faces. Ruben, now knowing that they were safe for the moment, guided Macbeth into a grove of nearby pines and halted her in the center before carefully removing Delete from his shoulder.

As he gently laid the robot onto the grass, Buzz looked at Ruben, then Binky, then finally said, sounding rather uneasy, "Who are you? I think I remember you from somewhere, but I just can't think now…my memory's off…"

"Never matter," Ruben replied as he turned Delete over to one side and reached for the arrow. "If you don't know me now, you're sure to know me later." He paused and began tugging at the arrow. "My name's Ruben Felinus, eldest son to Jamie Felinus." Buzz's expression remained blank. "You know, of the Fatherboard army. Before it was destroyed, that is."

"Fatherboard…?"

"Yes, Fatherboard. The protector of cyberspace before Machinos destroyed him. You have heard of the famous tyrant Machinos, haven't you?"

"Uh…no."

"What? Why haven't you heard of the—oh, God, something just occurred to me." He shook his head, his eyes rather wide. "You aren't, by any chance, related to that group of—"

He was cut off, however, by a loud shriek from below him. Both Buzz and Ruben flinched, then looked down at Delete, whose breathing had quickened; he had resumed to clutching his injured area. Ruben, who had been trying to force the arrow out of his arm, quickly withdrew his hand, then stared down at Delete as the robot let out a few more whimpers of pain, before finally silencing. The ebony cat creature was taken aback by this, and was unable to speak for a few seconds. However, he quickly recovered.

"Dear Lord!" he removed his hand from his chest. "What—oh, wait…I realize, now. That arrow…" He leaned down and gently pushed Delete's hand over to the side; the robot, who had once again slipped into half-consciousness, allowed it. As his hand dropped to the grass, Ruben leaned over a bit more and studied the markings. He then finally ran his finger over the area near the blade before jumping to conclusions. "Oh, geez…that arrow is one of the poisonous ones. I don't know what else I can do…it killed the General…it almost killed—" He suddenly snapped his fingers and pointed at Buzz. "That's it! That's what I'd been thinking! You look exactly like the General!"

"The who?" Buzz blinked a few times, then finally said, looking down at Delete, "I don't care who I look like right now, okay? Just find a way to get 'dat arrow out of him before it kills him…I really don't want 'dis day to get any worse."

Delete, who had had both eyes closed up until this time, paused to open one partially, as so to see what was going on around him. He felt horribly sick…the inside of his arm was burning him…and he could barely hear what was going on around him. He could only see the blurred forms of Ruben and Buzz over him, and they spoke as if he were underwater or something:

__

"I'll try. But I can't make any promises…if we couldn't save the General, I doubt that we can save your friend."

"Can't you just pull it out?"

"I can, but he won't let me…what's more, the poison is incredibly strong…"

"…Is incredibly strong…"

"Incredibly strong…"

That was when he finally blacked out.


	3. Startling Discoveries

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

CHAPTER III: Startling Discoveries

__

Hello my friend we meet again

It's been a while but where should we begin,

Feels like forever…

—Creed; "My Sacrifice"

Delete was in blackness for quite awhile before he finally awoke. Groaning, he turned his head to one side, then opened one eye slowly, glancing around at his blurred surroundings before sighing and closing it again. Every part of his body was stiff…every part of him ached…but for some reason or another the pain he had felt in his left arm was entirely gone. Sure, it felt a bit heavy, not to mention a bit sore, but it was much better than what he had been feeling earlier. He wondered if the pain had just stopped or if that black cat creature had succeeded in pulling it out correctly…

He sighed again, then turned his gaze over the other way in time to see Ruben sitting at the edge of what appeared to be some type of hastily thrown together tent; after further inspection Delete realized that he was inside it, and Ruben was near the spot that the "doorway" was made at, his arms crossed patiently. Binky was lazily lounging beside him, her eyes closed, while outside he could hear the voices of Buzz and some other creature chatting about something. At hearing Delete's shallow noises, Ruben stirred fully awake, then looked over toward the robot.

"Ah, good, you're awake at last," he sighed, slowly getting to his feet. "I apologize for the hastiness of it all…it took me awhile to pull the arrow out as is, but I don't think that I was correct in reconstructing your skeletal—" He stopped.

"Ugh…what?" Delete groaned, looking at Ruben drowsily. He felt as if he had just been injected with an entire vial of sleep drugs…although he wasn't in any pain, every bit of him from the neck down felt heavy and stiff. He wondered briefly for a moment if every person felt like this when they just came out of a deep faint…

Ruben bit his lower lip before looking nervously at the robot. "Well, uh, I think that you should know something about what exactly happened after I pulled the arrow out of your gash…"

"What?" Delete was beginning to get nervous himself just looking at the cat. "What did you do? What happened? Is everything fine, or did something have to…did something have to, um…" He exhaled before continuing. "Be removed from my system?"

"Well…there was the arrow, first of all," Ruben told him casually, shrugging a shoulder. "But something went wrong with your arm shortly after we set you down to get the arrow out. It had turned a rather sickly color…looked just like exhaust oil…the wound, that is…and, well, we thought that it was infected somehow. Gangrene is rather common around these areas, especially in newly made wounds, you know. To keep the poison—and the infection, at that—from spreading to other parts of your body and perhaps eventually killing you, we had to…well, you see, we had to…you know."

Delete was puzzled by this for a few moments, then he sighed and decided to check on how well they had done with his arm. Looking over to his left, his gaze dropped toward the spot where his hand was…but what lay on the table next to him, perfectly motionless, was not what he had expected to see.

Instead of his usual familiarized hand, a large, ugly, metallic hand—it looked like it had been thrown together from leftover auto parts—lay in its place. It was connected in such a way that he supposed it could function just like an ordinary human hand, and looking upward he could see a rather skeletal arm; it was also rather ugly. Shuddering in disgust, he looked up at his shoulder…and found that one of the joints in the arm itself was connected directly to his collar, in the spot where his upper left shoulder should have connected. Suddenly feeling a jolt of dread from within his circuitry, he looked back down at the hand, as it twitched slightly. The pointed metal fingers drummed on the hastily-constructed wooden tabletop rather gracefully and in an easygoing manner…but he had made them move. Realizing that this was, indeed, his left arm, he gave a shriek of dread and bolted upright from the table.

Ruben sensed his discomfort at once. "Listen, I know that it may be shocking, but you have to calm down. It's merely a replacement arm. I apologize for any inconvenience, but the supposed infection forced us to come to our senses. It had to be amputated. There was no other possible way to solve this."

"What did you do!" Delete shouted, ignoring Ruben, his voice still quaking with shock as he stared down at the ugly, skeletal structure that was now his new left arm. "I don't want this! I don't like this! I didn't even intend for this to happen in the first place…oh, geez…" He emitted a sob of defeat and slumped to the ground. "The boss is gonna have a fit…"

Ruben cocked his eyebrow. "Who's 'the boss'?"

Delete looked up at him, then said, his voice still sounding a bit terrified but for the most part collected, "I…he's…well, he's better known by the name of 'Hacker'. I work for him most of the time…you don't know him, do you? Because I need to get back before he thinks something happened to us…"

"Hacker, eh?" Ruben repeated, placing his hand to his goateed chin. He pondered for a few moments, then shook his head. "Nope, I don't believe I've ever heard of the guy. Of course, I'm not the one to ask…I'm just a fifteen year old who happened to fall victim to a barbaric action. But I could, however, let you talk to—GAHH!"

Delete jumped, then looked up at the ebony cat creature as he tensed in pain, gritted his teeth, and brought both hands behind his back, exhaling in hissing breaths. After a few seconds, he slumped back to his original position, then sighed and said, sounding rather exhausted, "You'll have to pardon that…I was shot in the back three years ago. Straight near the spine. Never have been able to recover…still have occasional tenses of pain once a week…"

He shook his head again, then started toward the opening of the tent, making a hand gesture for Delete to come with him. Binky was still dozing on the floor, unfazed by Delete and Ruben's shouts. "Come on, I'll let you talk to Paradox. He's outside with Buzz…the poor guy's been through a lot; he might be able to tell you something…"

Delete raised his eyebrow, then reluctantly got up—his new replacement arm was heavy, he guessed it weighed twice as much as his original—and followed Ruben out of the tent and into the grove of trees again. Sure enough, Buzz was sitting near a tree stump, talking to what appeared to be a pitch-black version of Delete himself, excluding the blue eye from the build…he now looked up at sensing Ruben and Delete's presence.

"Oh, hello, Ruben," Paradox replied, looking up at the cat creature. Despite how kindly his voice sounded, there was something about him that made Delete uncomfortable…it had to be his eyes. Yes, that was it, his eyes. They were wells of suffering, and no matter how cheerful that the creature could force himself to sound, the sad look in his eyes was still present. It had always been that way, but Delete didn't know that yet, and as a result he immediately grew a bit uneasy.

"Hi, 'Dox," he replied, flashing a grin; he then looked over at Buzz and placed his hands on his hips. "Nice to see that you're talking to someone else for a change," he told Paradox. "It's a good sign that you're starting to get over this whole 'depression' thing."

"That may be a good way to put it," Paradox sighed, resting his head in one hand. "It has been three years, after all…three years since the attack on your father…three years since he captured your mother…three years since…" He made a sound that Ruben could easily identify as a stifled sob. "Since she left…"

"Come on, I know that you miss her, but you've been getting way too worked up about this," Ruben sighed. He then abruptly changed the subject and took Delete by his side. "Anyway, that's not what I came out here to talk to you about. Paradox, this is Delete, and I think that he has some type of connection with your precious…um…what had you said her name was again…?"

Paradox looked up at Ruben solemnly. "Inez," he said sadly, to the point of which Buzz and Delete snapped to attention. "Her name was Inez, Ruben." He lowered his head and shook it. "The only thing I wanted was for her to love me, and, well…it didn't work." He sighed. "Some type of guy I was."

Buzz and Delete stared at him wide-eyed for a moment; Delete's mouth dropped open slightly, then the two shot glances at each other. Delete mouthed the word "Inez?" to his older sibling, and Buzz responded with a nod, then he looked back at where Paradox was currently sitting. Neither of them could muster what it took to ask Paradox if Inez had indeed been around these parts, and if so, what had she told him?

Instead, the first thing that came to Buzz's mind made its way to his mouth. "What was all 'dis talk 'dat you was doing earlier about how I looked exactly like 'da General? Who's 'da General, anyway? And where are we?" His voice faltered on the last sentence.

Ruben looked at him for a moment, then sighed and seated himself near a patch of fallen leaves, stretching himself out before speaking. "Well, you see, a few years back this entire area—I believe that it would be more appropriate if I said this entire world, even—was run by a brutal tyrant by the name of 'Machinos'. Not that it isn't being run now, of course…anyway, before his days now, Machinos used to have another companion who went by the name of 'the General'. He was nameless to everyone except Paradox." Paradox, who was listening, nodded rather sadly. "The General wasn't exactly a bad guy…sure, he destroyed and conquered along with Machinos and the army—which was rather weak at that time, let me tell you—but he wasn't a bad guy. He used to be friends with Paradox long before the fall of the Fatherboard army…"

"What do you mean by 'Fatherboard'?" Buzz asked, confused. "Aren't you referring to 'Motherboard', or something? Who 'da heck is Fatherboard, I mean—"

"I'm getting to that," Ruben told him impatiently; he then continued. "Okay, so shortly after this Paradox…he used to work for the Machinos army as one of the spies…he was praised too highly for his work and the General was jealous…he tried to burn Paradox to death, but the robot managed to escape…soon enough he came upon staying with us, the Felinus family. We took him in as if he had been nothing more than an abandoned puppy…in a way he was.

"Things went pretty smooth up until the time the General betrayed us again. He led Machinos to our home, then allowed the tyrant to raid it and eventually kill nearly all of us. He didn't even have second thoughts…he killed my brother, my sister…my father…" He made a short choking sound and shut his eyes before continuing. "I received only a shot in the back, and even then it wasn't fatal at all—Binky pulled it out. I suffer today only a mild case of spine troubles…I'm simply grateful to be alive.

"After a chain of events Binky and I tracked Machinos, and soon enough we heard word that the General was dead. Apparently Machinos had shot him with one of those poisonous arrows—the same ones that those soldiers were trying to use to kill you—and the poison had been too much for his system. He perished…his grave is still near a part of these woods." He cast his gaze up at Buzz, a trace of sadness yet supernatural suspicion within his pupils. "You look so much like the General…it's almost saddening."

Buzz was silent for a few moments, trying to let this sink in, but Delete didn't seem to even notice the fact that there were beings here that looked like them; he hadn't even noticed that Paradox was nearly an exact duplicate due to the hideous sight of his replacement arm. Leaning over a bit, he asked, rather lightly, "What about this 'Fatherboard' guy? What's he got to do with any of this?"

Ruben looked at the robot for a moment; he seemed to be out of mind, then he finally shook his head and came to his senses. "Oh, right, right, Fatherboard," he said, in an almost type of "silly me" tone. "Fatherboard used to rule over all of this area before Machinos came and slaughtered him. He brought down the army like they were toy soldiers…every one of them were slaughtered, and eventually Machinos came to killing Fatherboard single-handedly. It was he who overruled cyberspace afterward, and he's still at it today…sadly."

_This can't be real_, Buzz thought to himself as he stared at these two creatures that stood before him. Ruben was still talking, he knew, but he was too far off to listen to his words. _This just can't be real. It's just an odd dream; either that or the light's still getting to me. I need to force myself out of this fantasy. I need to focus back on reality. Lord knows what's happened back in the areas I'm familiar with…_

All was light for a few seconds, and then…all was dark again. The Freedom Fighters, all together, thankfully, now found themselves one on top of the other, in some type of cramped, soft space, the entire area shrouded in blackness except for a faint crack of horizontal light near the ground. The one on top—namely, Zeny—fumbled around for a few moments, then finally stopped after hitting against something and making a rather angered noise. Finally, she said, "Matthew, do you know where we are?"

"Mmph…no, as a matter of fact, I have absolutely no idea," Matthew informed her, struggling to get out from under the two girls but only succeeding in hitting his head against an adjacent wall. "Gah! Well, wherever we are, it's a pretty darn small space if you ask me."

"That portal had to be the Portal of Forty," Jacqueline said. "Fatherboard is dead, of course, so there can't possibly be any other explanation." She shifted slightly; her current position was highly uncomfortable. "We have to be someplace other than our current universe. I wonder where it took us…?"

"Well, it's not helping very much," Codebird groaned; he was stuck with all three of the kids lying on top of him, which wasn't exactly a picnic for him as he knew it. Looking straight ahead at the horizontal crack of light, he sighed, then shimmied forward a few inches before finally trying to look out through the crack.

He couldn't see much, seeing that the crack was only about a millimeter high, but he knew for sure that he could hear something. Inching forward a few more inches, he pressed the side of his head to the door and listened to the sounds outside.

Over the muffled faintness he could hear footsteps walking across some kind of floor—Codebird guessed that it was wood, most likely—then he heard the sound of light, faint singing. He wasn't entirely sure about it, but he was pretty sure that it—whatever it was—was humming the tune to "Unchained Melody". After a few moments of humming, both noises stopped abruptly. There was then the sound of rustling cloth.

"Man, it sure is rainy out today…" Codebird recognized the voice as feminine, although he couldn't determine who it sounded like from behind the thick slab of wood. "This is not going to do wonders for my hair. Uh-uh, no way. Maybe I should wear a hat…" There was the sound of something solid being set down on a wooden surface. "Yeah, that's it. I'll wear a hat to school today…it's better than getting my hair wet. I think I've got one in my closet or something."

He finally heard the sound of footsteps again…and this time they sounded as if they were heading toward their area. Codebird sucked in a breath for fear of them becoming discovered somehow, but he knew that it was ridiculous to fear it; it was to happen anyway. There were several tense moments before someone finally opened the door. Codebird looked up; the other three, puzzled, looked up as well. That was when they finally realized where they had landed.

Standing in the doorway, her eyes wide and her mouth dropping slightly, was Jackie of the Cybersquad. She appeared in complete and total awe of discovering them in there, thus, after a few moments of blank staring she finally yelped in surprise and shock, whipped around, then ran out of the room. Jacqueline, recognizing her at once, yelled after her, "There's no need to run amuck, prissy; it's just us!"

There was a pause from the hallway, then Jackie poked her head back inside the room. "Who?"

"It's me, Jacqueline," the wild girl replied, leaning forward and thus allowing the three to fall out of the closet; Codebird got up last, slightly muddled. "You know, from the other world."

"What other world—" Jackie began to say, but then she finally realized what the girl was referring to. Her eyes widened slightly as she recalled everything that had happened in the Machinos dimension—it hadn't been too long ago, seeing that she was still an eleven-year-old girl in her current world, but her alternate and the others looked…older. There was simply no other way for her to put it at this current moment.

And they did look older, indeed…for the most part. Codebird hadn't seemed to have changed much at all—no big surprise for her, he was a robot, after all—but Matthew's red hair was much longer, and shaggier at that; he also had grown a light mustache and goatee, as Ruben had (she didn't know about Ruben's signs of aging, though). Both were the same color as his hair, and he was much taller and more muscular. Other than that, he hadn't changed much at all. Zeny was taller and her hair seemed to be more matted; her build had also aged as well, and Jacqueline had her hair much longer, now; it reached down to her upper thighs and was still wild and matted, as it had been years ago. Jackie shook her head, then quickly rushed over to the closet.

"Oh, geez," she said, still sounding highly nervous as she grabbed Zeny's arm and helped her out of the closet, and to her feet. "I—I never thought I'd see you guys again…it's been a few months, now…but man, you look so much older, now…what's going on, guys? And how did you get here?"

Zeny dusted herself off, then said, looking at the girl, "You see, uh…we were in the forest when the Portal of Forty…suddenly opened up in that area. Matthew thought that it had drawn Codebird in, and he ran after it…and, well, it just seemed to go from there." She laughed weakly, then threw her arms around Jackie's neck. "But how's it been? It's been three years since I've last seen you…in our world, anyway…"

Jackie's eyes widened slightly; she returned the hug before drawing back slightly. "Uh…what did you just say? Three years since you've last seen me?" She shook her head. "I don't get that bit. For me it's only been a few months!"

Matthew crawled out of the closet next, nodding his head. "Yes…it appears that time seems to pass differently in both our dimensions. For you, it's only been a few months, if that's indeed correct…but for us, it's been three years." He shrugged his shoulder. "I don't know how it works, either."

Jackie stared at him for a few more moments, then she fixated her gaze over toward the doorway, tapping her fingers nervously together. "Yeah…but, listen, you guys, I really need to get going to school, now…and if my mom finds you guys in here she'll hit the roof. You need to keep quiet until I return from school, okay? Then we'll try to find a way on how to figure this out."

"How long will that take?" Codebird asked, looking around the room. "And what happened to the others? Are they around here, too, or what?"

"They'll meet me—er, us—when Hacker decides to call an attack on cyberspace," Jackie told them, then, noticing that they were looking at her with rather odd glances, quickly added, "Hacker is the dominant one in our world. Anyway, I'll be back in about…six hours, and then hopefully we'll be called into cyberspace in time for the Doc to try and figure this out." She paused again, then quickly added, "And he's not dead here!"

"That'll have to do, I suppose," Matthew sighed; he then walked over to the bed and sat down, nearly falling over in shock. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, feeling the bed's surface in awe. "This thing actually has bedsprings!" He paused another moment, then finally lay down across it and sighed in content. "Just like at home…it's been awhile since I've actually laid down on one of these things, you know."

"Ooh, let me try!" Codebird exclaimed, flying over and landing feet-first on the bed. He stepped on it with one of his feet. "Ooh, you're right…this is pretty soft…I've never laid in one of these things before, either, to be completely honest…" He looked at Matthew. "How does it feel?"

"Oh, it's great," Matthew assured him, turning over. "Try it out. You won't believe it."

"Men," Zeny sighed, rolling her eyes; she then caught sight of the computer. "Whoa! You have a computer in your own room?" She slowly trod toward it, her gaze never leaving the monitor. "I used to love computers back in the day…and in all those years I'd spent in alternate cyberspace I'd longed to use one again. Just my luck, I guess…" She chortled weakly.

"Um…you can play it, if you want," Jackie told her, shrugging her shoulder. "I've got San-Man on my computer system…it's a great game, really…all about saving the environment and stuff. I think you may like it…" She cast a nervous glance back down the hallway. "Listen, guys, I really need to get to school…you stay out of sight until I get back, you hear? I don't want my mom finding out that there's three other kids and a robot in my room."

"Oh, don't worry your sissy little head," Jacqueline replied, placing her hands on her hips. Zeny approached the system, then slowly took her seat and pressed the "power" button on the main drive. "We'll be just fine, okay? We've dealt with things a lot worse than someone's mom finding us in another room."

"I know that!" Jackie snapped back; she then looked back down the hallway, then back at them, then backed toward the hallway. "Ooh…I just need to get to school, okay? I've never had a tardy slip in my life, and I sure as heck don't want to have one now!" She then slammed the door, leaving the four in her room, continuing with their desired interests as she ran down the hallway and out the door.

Ruben had long since finished his full story about the Machinos dimension, and Buzz had listened to bits and pieces of it, but he was too deep in his own thoughts to listen to the whole thing. It was now getting dark; he sighed, then cast his gaze at his hand. It was the same as it had always been, and he scoffed at this thought. Of course it had always been; why would it have to change now?

_The General…I look just like the General_, Buzz thought to himself, huffing. _I would actually be able to believe it if I knew what the General looked like…but it won't do me much help now that he's dead._ He looked up toward the sky. _So we're in another world, eh? Ha. Doesn't shock me a bit…it figures that the portal would take us here._

Somewhere off in the distance, he thought that he heard the echoing howl of a wolf. _But what I want to know is why the portal opened up there in the first place, instead of where the boss wanted it to. He certainly seemed to be concentrating well enough…maybe it was a defective pendant?_ He sighed again and shook his head. _If so, Globus is a real sneak…and she cost Delete an arm and me my sense of mind. Why did we have to be the ones that got pulled in? It was the boss's fault, not mine or Deeds's…_

"Hey…what was your name? Fuzz?"

Buzz looked up momentarily in time to see Ruben standing over him, the shadows playing on his face and making him seem older than he already was. At having his name mispronounced in such a way, he flushed for a moment, then said, his voice rather tight, "No, Ruben…it's Buzz. Call me Buzz, okay?"

"Oh, right. Buzz." Ruben laughed weakly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I always tend to get my names mixed up…I'm not exactly the brains of my group." He slowly took his seat next to Buzz and leaned against an adjacent tree. "You see…I'm illiterate."

"Eh…?"

"It means that I can't read."

"Oh."

"Yep…sadly, I can't read if my life depended on it. I can't even read the simple words that most children can read when they're in preschool. I was taught differently than most, and when they…my family, I'm referring to, were killed…well, it all kind of went out the window. Down with my father and siblings. I can't remember it…I can't remember anything about novellas…" He sighed and shook his head, almost shamefully. "Not even a word."

"I suppose 'dat you think it's a good thing that you're around others who can read, huh?"

"Yep. I'm even lucky to have Paradox and Binky…both of them are hated by Machinos, and well…they're technically all I have left. There's a chance that my mother may have survived the raid, but I haven't heard of her since…" He shook his head again. "I only have those two and my wilderness instincts to rely on now."

There was a moment of silence, then Buzz finally said, uneasily, "Ruben…can I ask you about something?"

"Sure, go ahead," Ruben replied, without doing so much as faltering in his speech. "Ask me anything you want; I've got all night before I have to go out in the morning."

"Uh…" Buzz suddenly found himself unable to speak for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "Well, I was thinking about how you said I looked just like 'da General…well, I'd love to believe 'dat, except I don't know what 'da General looks like. If I had any idea, and if I had any idea why we're here as is, maybe I could—"

"Actually, I have something to ask you as well," Ruben told him, stretching himself out on his back. "Before I answer your question, I'd like to know…I was trying to ask you when I was trying to pull that arrow out of your brother…his name was Elite, right?"

Buzz sighed again. "No, his name's Delete," he told the cat creature. "You have to add a 'd' in front of the name you thought in the first place. But no big deal…"

"Oh, yeah," Ruben replied, laughing sheepishly. "Anyway, what I was going to ask you was, are you, by any chance, related to that group of kids that came in here through the Portal of Forty about three years ago?"

Buzz blinked, then said, sounding rather uneasy at what answer he would receive, "Uh…what group of kids may you be referring to?"

"Well, you see, a group of three kids—along with a bird—came in here through the Portal of Forty three years ago. Whether it was a mistake or not, I don't know. I kind of forgot about their names, but I remember one of them from when I was about twelve…his name was Matt. A redhead boy…I remember that much about them…"

"Oh my God!" Buzz exclaimed in absolute shock, leaping upright as he stared at the cat. "You mean you know Matt as well!"

Ruben smiled. "Ah, so you do know them," he said, almost sniggering. "It figures that someone from that same world would come into here and have an encounter with the Dark Riders such as that." He lay back again. "Well, let me tell you something, this ain't just a dream. You and your friend are now in a world that's unlike your own. But you'll find that out tomorrow."

"Why, what's happening tomorrow?" Buzz asked, still a bit shaken from what Ruben had said earlier.

Ruben looked up at him with knowing eyes. "Since you want to know so much about the General, I'm going to lead you and your friend to his grave after I come back from my daily hunt. I've been thinking about you two and such, and now I seem to have devised a well-enough plan that I think has a good chance of working."

"And what might that be?" Buzz replied, crossing his arms.

Ruben sniggered again. "Do you honestly think I'm going to tell you the whole thing now? No, no, it'll be too much for you to take. I want you to sleep tonight, okay?" Before Buzz could answer, he had gotten to his feet and had started to walk back toward the tent. Before he entered, however, he turned around to face him one last time. "Hopefully everything will be explained tomorrow. In the meantime…" He shrugged his shoulder before ducking into the tent, leaving Buzz with two final words lingering in the air. 

"Good night."


	4. Ruben Explains

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

CHAPTER IV: Ruben Explains

Buzz slept restlessly throughout the night—this place was new to him, and although he was usually a heavy sleeper, he disliked this area greatly—and when morning came, he was rudely awakened by Ruben crashing in through the trees, atop the black-and-white horse, calling out, "Hey! I've finally managed to shoot something this time! Come out of there!" Buzz, who had been sleeping dreamlessly against the tree, was jolted awake by this and angrily glared up at Ruben, who had now stopped in the center of the clearing, triumphantly holding up a blue-and-purple bird, now apparently dead.

"Sure, 'dat's just great," Buzz huffed, staggering to his feet. "Just come crashing through here when some of us are still asleep, why don't ya? It'll save me 'da time of having to wake myself up, sure…"

"I apologize," Ruben told him, dismounting Macbeth. "Paradox and Binx usually wake up a few hours earlier…it's kind of become our tradition."

"Oh, 'dat's so very nice," Buzz replied sarcastically, turning back around. "While you're at it, why don't you go shoot down some toast? Or maybe a box of Cocoa Puffs? It'd save us a lot more time, it would…"

"You're so very kind," Ruben replied, just as sarcastically. He strung the dead bird up on a nearby branch. "Look, if you want me to show you what I was telling you about last night, it'd be best if you'd work with me, here. So I don't break free of tradition; it doesn't give you any kind of notion to say I should stop it."

"You should if it annoys people," Buzz sighed, leaning back against the tree again. "And somehow I don't feel like going to see someone's grave marker so early in 'da morning…it makes a lot of people feel depressed, you know 'dat? A _lot_ of people."

Ruben was silent for a moment, then he sighed and leaned against the tree that he had swung the bird over. "Listen, Buzz, I know that you're annoyed with being here altogether. To be honest, I don't want to show you the grave either. But I've already devised the plan, and I can't back down on it now. It may be your only hope of ever even trying to get back to your own universe, at that."

This seemed to have caught Buzz's attention; he turned around. "You mean you have other intentions for us 'dan simply showing us 'da General's grave marker? Is 'dat it?" Ruben nodded; Buzz appeared lost in a blank for a few moments afterward. "But…why? What's your intention?"

A small smile seemed to play on Ruben's lips. "That's to be explained when we actually get there," he told the robot. "Until then, you must be patient. I would've left moments ago, but Delete and Paradox are still inside the tent…and Binx has been pretty exhausted as of late. She's been trying to serve as a hunting companion." He shook his head again. "Which is why I didn't take her with me this time."

"Dey're still in 'dere?" Buzz looked a bit surprised. "What 'da heck's taking 'em so long, 'den? 'Dey should be out here already as is." Ruben merely shrugged his shoulder. "Okay, okay, I'm gonna go in and check on them. Don't do anything until I come back, okay?" He then sighed, realizing at the moment exactly how stupid that sounded.

Ruben didn't seem to notice, however; he remained against the tree, his hands in his pockets in a calm, cool manner. Buzz looked at him a few seconds more, then ran toward the tent, threw open the flaps in an almost dramatic manner, then stepped into the interior. Binky was stretched out on the floor, in a heavy sleep, while Delete and Paradox were sleeping on the ground next to her. Buzz faltered before taking a few more steps in, then trotting over to Delete, placing his hands on his brother's shoulders, and hastily shaking him awake with as much force possible.

Delete awoke with a start, giving a yelp of surprise as he did so. Buzz cringed a bit at the high pitched sound of the noise, then said, placing his hands on his hips again, just as Binky and Paradox stirred, "Delete, get up. Ruben's taking us to 'da General's grave marker…he says he's got a plan or something."

"Urgh…Buzzie, can't you just give me a few more hours?" Delete replied, now a bit groggy, as he laid his head between his arms. "I don't want to get up right now…"

Buzz lost it for a moment; he kicked his brother in the ribs. "Get up!" he shouted angrily; Binky and Paradox slowly got to their feet and stretched. "Ruben doesn't want to wait too long, and I don't either! 'Da only thing you're doing to us right now is stalling us more! Get up now!"

Delete whimpered and rolled over to his side. "But I don't wanna," he whined, still as groggy as he had been before. Buzz gritted his teeth, then delivered another sharp kick to his brother's back. "Ow! Buzz, stop kicking me!"

"I'll stop kicking you if you'll get off your lazy bum and get up!" Buzz replied sharply. Delete turned over on his other side, then shot an annoyed glance at Buzz before groaning slightly and shakily getting to his feet. Buzz watched him impatiently as he did this; he then turned around and headed back out of the tent, with Delete following.

Ruben was still waiting patiently for them near the tree. When he saw all four of them out in the open, he smiled ever so slightly, then walked over to the spot where Macbeth was tethered. However, as he brought out the black-and-white horse, he also brought out another one; a feeble dapple-gray. He held the reins of the dapple-gray out to Buzz, who hesitantly took them.

"Who's 'dis?" Buzz asked Ruben, as he patted the horse on the nose.

Ruben smiled again. "That's Buttercup," he told the robot, as he mounted Macbeth. "I figured that if you're ever planning to survive here you might as well know how to ride a horse. There are no futuristic devices here, you know." He then noted the look of disbelief on Buzz's face and quickly added, "Buttercup isn't as old as she looks. She may move rather slowly, but it's just because she's sick. She's been sick for the past four years."

Buzz's eyes grew slightly wide. "Sick with what?"

"I'm not sure," Ruben told him, as he slowly turned Macbeth around in the other direction; Buzz managed to mount Buttercup with the aid of Delete's shoulders. "She went out into our wheat field one day and—I don't know what happened out there. When she came back, she was wheezing and had a slight limp in one of her back legs." He then helped Binky up onto Macbeth's neck as Paradox slipped on behind him. "My dad thought that it was a punctured lung, but he never got the chance to look her over…" He looked down at the horse's mane and fell silent.

Buzz realized what Ruben was getting at and remained silent, as Delete, with some difficulty, managed to finally get onto Buttercup, seating himself behind Buzz. Ruben broke out of his trance to look at the two; he then nodded and, looking forward again, snapped Macbeth's reins gently. The horse trotted forth into the maze of trees, while Buzz followed suite.

Buttercup, the robot soon enough found out, was a rather easy horse to ride—then again, old horses were always easier to ride than the younger horses. Despite how feeble the dapple-gray had looked at first sight, she managed to maneuver quite well through the trees and just managed to keep an even pace with Macbeth. As they leapt over a log, Ruben turned his head toward the two and called to them, "So, are you having a rather easy time with the horse?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're doin' okay," Buzz called back to him; Ruben nodded a bit.

"Well, I'm glad that you know how to ride Buttercup," he told them; then he fixated his gaze back on the scene ahead of him. "But you're going to need to stay by me during this next little trip, here. The General's grave marker is across…this creek, here." He said these last three words as he slowed Macbeth to a halt in front of a rather shallow but raging creek; Buttercup halted behind him, pausing to bite at her upper flank with her teeth.

Buzz looked at the creek with a somewhat shocked notion, and let the reins drop from his hand for a moment before realizing his mistake and quickly taking them up again. Ruben gestured the two over to him, and Buzz, having heard what he had said earlier, nodded and guided the horse over toward the spot where Ruben stood. The cat creature then pointed out to a hill across the creek.

"The grave marker is over that hill," he informed the two. "But first things first. We need to get across the creek…it's no problem for me, but you two haven't had much experience with survival skills, so…" He bit his lower lip. "You have to stay by me until we get across the creek, okay? You heard me before."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Buzz replied blandly.

Ruben managed a weak smile. "Great," he replied; then he lightly snapped Macbeth's reins. The horse took another step or two forward, to the point where her hooves were underneath the water's rushing surface. "It's pretty still on the bottom, the water just rushes at the top." Buzz nodded, then guided Buttercup forth into the water; Ruben followed. "Now, get to my right, and we'll cross."

Buzz reluctantly guided Buttercup over toward Macbeth's right side, and the two horses plowed into the water. The creek was, indeed, faster than expected for the two robots; Buzz didn't want to admit it to Ruben, but he was having a hard time—he and Buttercup alike—getting through the water. Deciding upon refusal of admitting it to the cat, he continued to try guiding the horse on his own…then lost his balance and fell backward.

The sudden shock was too much for him; before he could slip off he lunged forward and grabbed hold of Buttercup's reins to keep himself mounted. The horse let out a startled whinny, then reared back onto her hind legs, and Delete (who hadn't been holding onto the horse properly) slipped off her back and, with a startled scream, splashed down headfirst below the water.

Ruben heard the splash immediately. Puzzled, he turned around, but upon seeing the scene—Buzz holding on for what appeared to be dear life and Delete missing—his expression turned to one of both dread and shock. Binky's eyes widened slightly, and Paradox shivered and clapped one of his hands over his mouth.

"Buzz, what did you _do_!" Ruben shouted.

"Zeny, you've been playing that game for hours," Matthew groaned, as he looked out of Jackie's bedroom window, his head supported in one hand. "When are you going to stop, already? You've beaten it five times in the past three hours, so why not do something else?"

"But this game is so…great!" Zeny replied, as she typed away at the keyboard, her eyes glued to the screen. "Besides, what else is there to do? Lie on that bed again?"

Matthew glared at her, then looked back out the window again. "No…but there has to be something else to do around here besides lie around and listen to you play that game." He looked down in the direction of Jackie's street. "I'd like to go outside and see what today's civilization is like, but that increases the risk of someone seeing us…"

"What's the point of even thinking about risks, anyway?" Jacqueline scoffed, as she tossed a rubber ball that she'd found under the bed against an adjacent wall. "None of these sissy technology freaks will even know who we are."

Codebird, meanwhile, was looking through Jackie's closet, trying to find something to do (and secretly hoping to find another rubber ball, as Jacqueline had). He didn't have much luck for the most part, but it wasn't until he reached the upper shelf of the closet that he gave a rather odd laugh and pulled a box down. Matthew looked over at him as he held it up for the others to see.

"Heh, look at this, you guys!" he snickered, as he held up the box (in Matthew's particular direction). "'Mystery Date'!"

A rather embarrassed look crossed Matthew's face before he lunged forward, shouting rather hastily, "Put-that-down!" and snatching the box away from the bird. Now a rather startled look crossed the metallic bird's face, and he looked at Matthew a few seconds before blinking and shaking his head.

"What was that all about?" he asked, holding out his wings in a confused manner.

"Uh…it was nothing," Matthew replied, quickly shoving the box underneath the bed. "It just wasn't something that I'd…expect from you, that's all."

"Then why'd you blush?"

"Uh…I do that randomly." Codebird stared at him with one eyebrow raised. "What? I do blush randomly! It's just a trait I received from…someplace else, that's all! Stop staring at me like that, Codebird!"

"Very well." Codebird sniggered, then flew back over to the bed and laid himself down across it. He then looked back toward the direction of the window. "I wonder when Jackie's going to get back from school…this is taking forever."

"The average school day usually lasts about six or seven hours," Jacqueline replied blandly, tossing the ball against the wall again. She looked back up toward the window before continuing. "It's been about five hours now. She should be coming back in about an hour or two before—"

It was then that the computer screen's image faded, and Motherboard's face came into view. Zeny jumped back in surprise, then stared at the screen as the computerized head spoke. "Jackie! Jackie, are you there?"

"Uh…uh…" Zeny was unable to respond for a few moments; it had been awhile since this had last actually happened to her. Finally, she mustered up the nerve. "Um, Jackie isn't here at the moment…she'll be back in an hour."

"Who—are you?" Motherboard replied, slightly confused.

Zeny opened her mouth to say something, but Jacqueline butted in front of her. "The name's Jacqueline," she replied, holding out her hand to the screen. "I'm from the infamous Freedom Fighters. You may not have heard of us, but we've come from another place, and we need your help, it appears."

"How—do you know—about me?"

"Jackie told us," Jacqueline replied, still sounding as collected as ever. "She's a friend of ours…since I believe you can be trusted, I'll also put in that she's my alternate. Anyway, we're experiencing a few…technical difficulties…and I need you to portal the four of us in. I'll explain everything later on, when the others get back from school…"

Motherboard was silent for a few moments; she appeared to be listening to something or someone, it seemed. Finally, she responded, rather reluctantly, "Very well, I'll—portal you in. Digit says—that you can be—trusted."

At hearing Digit's name, Codebird perked up, then quickly jumped off the bed and began to fly toward the screen, and try and figure out if what he had heard was indeed correct. Before he could get over to the area, however, Motherboard's image faded and a large, pink portal opened up in its place. Zeny was once again startled, and Jacqueline looked rather startled herself, but like all girls her type quickly recollected.

"Wow," Matthew remarked, as he stepped up behind the two girls. "I haven't seen a real portal like this in ages…"

"Neither have I," Zeny agreed, still sounding rather taken aback. "I'd almost forgotten what they looked like, truth to be told…"

"Okay, okay, enough of this, let's just go in," Jacqueline quickly responded; she then dove forward headfirst into the swirling light. Matthew looked at her as she entered, then sighed and ran after her; Zeny followed. Codebird realized what was going on and quickly flew in just as the portal faded and closed behind them.

Macbeth and Buttercup were now both safely on the shore of the other side of the creek, and Ruben was knelt down next to them, trying to get Delete awake. The robot had been rendered unconscious after remaining in the creek for such a long period of time (it had taken Ruben awhile to fish him out), and Ruben was trying to get him to come to his senses while they still had enough time to do so. Buzz was knelt next to him, looking rather nervous as the cat looked his brother over.

"Damn it, Buzz!" Ruben finally sighed, and punched Delete in the chest. The robot emitted a slight choking noise, and a small stream of water flowed out. "If I've told you once, I've told you a million times…_stay by me_! Now see what's happened?" He punched Delete in the chest again, and another stream of water left his lungs. "You'll be lucky if he even awakens by this time…he swallowed _a lot_ of creek water during the time I tried to get him out."

"It wasn't like it was entirely my fault, you know," Buzz replied angrily, crossing his arms. "I just lost my balance, 'dat was all. And Delete wasn't exactly holding on very well, either, it appeared."

Ruben made no response, but merely sighed again, then punched Delete in the chest one last time. This time the robot made several stifled coughs, and sat upright, his eyes tearing, clutching his chest with one hand. Ruben sighed again, this time in relief, then placed his hand on Delete's shoulders to keep him from falling on his back again.

"Wow, that was a quick recovery!" Ruben remarked, lightly patting him on one of his shoulders. "You okay? You were half-drowned by the time that we pulled you out…"

"Oh—God—my—chest—hurts—" Delete gasped between violent coughs.

"Well, it should," Ruben replied rather calmly. "You swallowed a lot of creek water…it was amazing that you came to the way that you did. Just be careful concerning holding onto the horse next time, okay?"

"I'm—*_hack_*—really sorry—"

"You shouldn't be…I fell off the horse myself from time to time. Besides, it wasn't your fault, entirely." He shot a rather angry glare at Buzz as he said this. "Just try to keep a better hold next time, okay?"

"*_Cough_* okay *****_cough_*."

Ruben smiled, then helped Delete to his feet and turned to Binky and Paradox. "Come on, let's go over the hill, now. It looks like he's going to be all right for the time being…" He glared at Buzz again. "And we're going to leave the horses here. We'll do better on foot, I think."

Buzz snarled at Ruben, then angrily followed him as he and the others went over the hill, coming to a stop in a grassy clearing. Ruben looked around for a while, then slowly released Delete and ran over to the area near a large, branching pine, stopping below a particularly large branch. He looked around again, then appeared to nod before turning around and gesturing the others over to him. "Come on!" he called. "I found it!"

At hearing his words, Binky and Delete ran over—or at least tried to, what with Delete's condition—but Buzz and Paradox remained where they were standing, Buzz because of anger, Paradox because of both sadness and dread. As Buzz continued to stand there, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, Paradox whimpered slightly and took a few more steps backward, stopping near another tree. Buzz looked behind him at the robot, then looked over at the spot where Ruben stood. Both Binky and Delete were standing beside him, and Ruben himself was knelt down, scraping away at the earth with what appeared to be a sword.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of him, and he walked over to where the other three were standing—or at least two of them literally. When he arrived, Ruben was still digging away at the earth, and Binky and Delete were patiently waiting beside him. Buzz looked at the two, then down at Ruben, then finally said, crossing his arms again, "What 'da heck do you think you're doing?"

Ruben paused momentarily to look up at him before quickly shifting his gaze back down and digging a bit more. "What do you think I came here to do? I'm unearthing the General's coffin, that's what the heck I think I'm doing." He grunted, then paused to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. "Geez, I wish I had a shovel…this is even worse than using my bare hands."

"'Den why don't you just ask someone to help?" Buzz replied, in a tone that caused Ruben to glare at him again. "Why not ask Delete or 'dat cat over 'dere?"

"My name is Binky," Binky muttered under her breath, but Buzz took no notice.

"No, I can handle it just fine, thank you very much," Ruben replied, starting to sound rather annoyed yet again. "They only put the General two or three feet under last time I checked. It shouldn't take much more than a half hour for me to unearth the coffin itself."

"Wow, '_dat's_ a big improvement," Buzz replied, still sounding highly sarcastic. Ruben glared at him and made a slight snarling sound under his breath.

"Well, if so, I don't see you doing anything to help," Ruben replied hotly. "If you're so desperate, why don't you get down on your hands and knees and dig with me, eh?"

Buzz stared at him for a moment, then glared and kicked some dirt in his direction before turning away. Delete stared after him, then placed one hand to his mouth before looking down at Ruben, his gaze resembling that of an unhappy child's. "I…I could help you dig, if you want, Ruben," he replied timidly; Ruben paused yet again to look up at him.

"Yes, that would be great, thanks," he replied, still sounding rather rough. "But you'll have to use your bare hands, though…I've only got one shovel, and even so it isn't exactly an authentic one. Think you can handle that?"

"Don't worry about it," Delete replied, getting down on his knees beside the cat creature. "I have to do all sorts of stuff for the boss all the time…this should be no problem."

Ruben smiled, despite the condition that he was in. "That's good," he said, before resuming his digging. "Maybe you should use your newer arm, you know, to make the digging go faster or something. It'll help us a lot."

Delete nodded, and for a while there was only the sound of scraping as the two dug a rather large hole underneath the pine. Buzz stood with his arms crossed and his body leaned against the tree for about fifteen minutes, until the two finally succeeded in pulling a small, wooden casket out of the hole that they had dug. Buzz raised an eyebrow as the two gently set it on the ground; Ruben wiped his hands off on his shirt as Delete slowly got to his feet.

"Is 'dat it?" Buzz asked, slowly taking his weight off of the trunk.

Ruben nodded. "Yep," he said, rather exhausted. "This is it." He then reached toward the nailed top of the casket and wrapped his fingers around either side. "I just need to pull this off…" He then gave the top a sharp yank, and it came loose rather easily, due to both age and applied force. Ruben fell backward, the wooden top of the casket landing on top of him, as Buzz looked at the open casket, then took a few steps forward and gazed inside.

At first glance a shiver of morbid fear ran down his spine, and he thought of pulling away from it. But after a few moments he found that he couldn't, no matter what his brain told him: he could now see the General's corpse. Ruben was right. The General was a mirror image of him, and he didn't like it; it was like looking at his own dead body in the casket in which it lay.

As he continued to stare, more detail fell into place. Years in the ground had given the corpse a pale complexion and a worn, tattered look. Half of the metal coating that had once come down across the head had been either eaten or worn away, yet the clothing was perfectly preserved. The eyes were closed, and the arms crossed, like a normal funeral pose. The mouth was partly open, exposing the rotting teeth, and a blood-caked hole was visible in the right side of the body. Buzz swallowed, then finally managed to look away.

Ruben slowly came up behind him, then gazed down at the corpse along with the robot. "Yes, he does look like you, doesn't he?" he remarked quietly; Buzz stared up at him, unable to speak for a few moments.

"Yes," he finally muttered, looking away from him. He didn't want to look into his eyes. He didn't want to look into anyone's eyes…

Ruben nodded, eerily calm. "That's why my plan came together so easily. Since you're a splitting image of the General, I think that this actually has a chance to go through. But you have to listen to me, or else you'll probably lose your only chance to get back to where you once belonged."

"What? Why? What's your plan?" Buzz replied, slightly suspicious.

"Oh, it's nothing too drastic…at least, not for you," Ruben replied, still calm. He knelt down next to Buzz and put one hand around his shoulder. "Listen, I had the idea for this plan last night. Machinos has been searching for a replacement general ever since the original's death, and so far he hasn't been successful. That's what gave me the idea. If you remind him of the old one so much, there may be a good chance that he'll accept you. Delete too." He bit his lip, careful not to say that Delete looked almost exactly like Machinos as well. "Anyway, once you're there, you'll probably meet and befriend several others that would like to help you. Listen to them; they'll probably know what they're doing, and they'll strengthen my plan further.

"The first individual you must befriend is Machinos—but don't get too attached to him. That tyrant has a way of letting 'friends' slip into his grasp, and then…well, he controls them. He pilots them like marionettes. But enough about that…let's see, here…" He slicked his bangs back again. "Okay, okay, just, here's what the main outline is. You and Delete go to the Machinos grounds, apply for general and…some other placement, pray that Machinos will accept you, and if he does, try to find the prisoners and tell them that you're here to help them. You escape, along with the prisoners, and once you get back, tell me everything you know about Machinos."

"But why…?"

"Just listen to me. I've been wanting to kill that…_thing_ for years. After what he did to my father…my siblings…he deserves to die." The ebony cat gritted his teeth. "I don't know any weaknesses of his, though. The only ones who know are the soldiers who are closely acquainted with him, and even so they'll never tell."

"I know, I know, but why do I—"

"Okay, I'm going to tell you why I unearthed the General's casket in the first place, now. I didn't do it just to show you how much you look like him. I wanted his clothing. You're going to put it on, then ride Macbeth over to the grounds next morning, along with Delete."

"What!" Buzz looked aghast; he drew away from Ruben. "Look, telling me to go apply for general is one thing, but telling me to put on the clothes of a dead being is another!" He shook his head. "God knows what 'dose things have endured…"

"Just do it, okay?" Ruben replied through clenched teeth. "It's the only way for the two of you to get in without the Blind Trackers coming on you. Machinos has those things in endless numbers all over the grounds, and if one of them jumps you…well, there's a fine chance that you won't live. Not unless they're familiar with you."

"Yeah, but—"

"If you're wondering why, it's because they're blind, naturally. They can only determine their friends and foes by scent and hearing. If you're wearing the clothing, it's like a repellent. If you smell like the General, they won't jump you. Trust me on this."

"What about Delete?"

"Delete will be just fine as is," Ruben replied. "As long as you're with him, they won't touch him. Just follow my lead." He then slid his hands underneath the casket and leaned it over, spilling the corpse out onto the grass. "I'm sorry, Pray, but it's the only way I know how," he muttered to the corpse before leaning over to strip it of its garments.

Buzz looked toward the hill where Paradox stood for a few moments before looking over at Ruben, who tossed a pile of slightly moldy garments into his hands the moment that he made eye contact. "Here, put these on, quick," he ordered, as he turned around to tend to the corpse again. "They'll probably fit you. You and the General appear to be the exact same height."

Buzz looked at Ruben, then at the clothing in his hands, then finally sighed and walked over behind the pine, tossing them onto the grass as he did so. He scanned the garments visually first before finally picking up one of the General's slightly bloody leather gloves and slipping it on over his hand. Ruben was once again proven to be correct—the glove fit perfectly. Shuddering slightly at the thought of this, he reached down and slipped on the other glove, before fitting the badge, the hat, and lastly, the knee-high army boots before stepping out from behind the pine, nearly tripping as he did so. Apparently he wasn't used to walking in any type of shoe that went up past his ankles.

_Lordy, how did he walk in these boots_? Buzz thought to himself as he tried to steady his walking pace. Ruben, who was just closing up the casket, looked up at him again as he entered, then his eyes widened slightly in amusement and he slowly got to his feet, taking the casket up with him.

"Whoa," he sighed, shaking his head. "You _are_ a mirror image of the General…"

"You said 'dat earlier," Buzz told him, almost tripping again. Steadying himself, he sighed and remained where he was, his arms crossed again, as Ruben lowered the casket into the hole, then began filling in the dirt from the pile he had formed when he was digging. This was easier than the digging job itself, and he was done within a ten-minute time estimation before finally picking up the sword from the ground and tossing it in Buzz's direction.

Buzz panicked for a split second, then finally reached up and caught it by the handle before it could stick itself in the ground. Panting, he held it up, then lowered it to his side as Ruben walked by him, still grinning eerily.

"You appear to be better than I thought you would," Ruben remarked, as he began to head back down the hill. Paradox had already left and was standing beside the horses, the curious yet melancholy gaze set on his face. "You're not perfect…then again, no one is. But never matter. It doesn't matter right now, you'll learn soon enough."

He smiled again and looked down toward the creek. "It's not part of the plan as is. All that matters now…is the application."


	5. Onto the Grounds

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

CHAPTER V: Onto the Grounds

"Ruben, I…I don't think I can do 'dis."

It was now early morning, and both Buzz and Delete were standing in front of the old windmill that lay south of the grounds itself. Buzz, still dressed in the General's clothing, was seated atop Macbeth, who had been renewed, the dirt washed out of her coat, the snarls combed out of her mane, and her hooves polished to a vivid shine. Delete was next to him, his hand on the horse's side, looking ahead at the sight that lay before him with an eerie, almost far-off look on his face. Ruben, Binky and Paradox, along with Buttercup, were standing behind them.

"Oh, stop worrying," Ruben replied, in a rather cheerful attire. "I'm sure that you'll be able to get in just fine."

"But what if I don't!" Buzz snapped at him, a trace of nervousness in his voice tone. "What if 'dose Blind Tracker things jump me before I can get to 'da grounds themselves? I mean, I heard what you said about 'da clothing and all, but still, 'dese things are so old, and I'm taking way too many risks just standing here—"

"Buzz," Ruben said, hastily reaching up and placing his hand on the robot's shoulder. "Just…calm…down. If Machinos doesn't accept you I'll be struck by lightning and thrown into the river." He slowly removed his hand. "Listen, trust me on this one. I've been here for years, and I think I know Machinos well enough to deduce this for you."

Buzz was silent for a few moments, then finally breathed a shuddering sigh and said, looking over toward the looming silhouette of the grounds, "Okay. I—I can try 'dis. I'll try dis."

"That's the spirit," Ruben said, smiling. He then looked down at the ground, then up at Buzz, then slowly extended his hand. "But before you go…let's put yesterday's quarrel behind us, shall we? You're probably going to be stuck with me for quite some time, here."

Buzz looked back at Ruben, then finally forced a rather weak smile and shook the cat's hand. "Very well," he replied. "I suppose 'dat it would be 'da best thing to do before I go over there, eh?"

"Very." Ruben then pointed out toward the grounds. "Now go. Ride across the field and do not, I repeat, do not stop. The Blind Trackers like to hunt early mornings, recognizable or not." Buzz and Delete both shuddered at this remark. "Once you reach the grounds, however, you'll be safe."

Buzz nodded, then said, "I give you my best, Ruben", knowing that was a phrase that he often heard in war movies. He then looked straight ahead, straightened his pose, then snapped the reins and shouted "YAH!" The horse reared up, then charged off, with Delete, who was naturally fast, sprinting behind. Ruben looked off after them until they disappeared some moments later, then turned around and began to head over to Buttercup, tethered to the windmill poles.

"I do hope that they know what they're doing," he sighed as he undid Buttercup's reins.

"Come on, Delete, keep up with me!" Buzz teased as he quickened Macbeth to a canter. Delete, who was still running behind him, was beginning to run out of breath and was getting rather annoyed with the way that Buzz was taunting him. "Come on, Deeds! You can go faster 'dan 'dat! Let's see you burn!"

"Cut—it—out!" Delete panted, trying to quicken his pace, but it was hopeless to try and keep up with Macbeth at this rate. "I mean it, cut it out. This isn't the least bit funny, Buzzie."

"Aww, that's too bad," Buzz replied in a mocking tone, but he slowed Macbeth to a steady trot for his brother's sake. "You really need a horse of your own, methinks. Maybe if we had asked, Ruben would've lent you Buttercup…"

"Well, it appears that it's a bit too late for that now," Delete replied, finally slowing to a walk in order to catch his breath. "Besides, the Blind Trackers would've noticed that she has a different scent and would've ripped her apart." He panted a few more times. "Why don't you just let me up on Macbeth? She can carry the both of us."

Buzz shook his head. "We don't have 'da time. Remember what Ruben told us? We're supposed to run across 'dis field to 'da grounds, and we aren't supposed to stop until we're within range." He looked ahead. "We're almost 'dere now…I can see more details…hey, what 'da—"

Before he could finish, however, a large shape leapt out of the air and landed directly in front of them with a loud _THOOOMM _sound. Macbeth, taken aback, screamed and reared up, while Delete jumped and Buzz nearly fell off. After the shock passed—at least for the two robots, anyway; Macbeth was still plunging and kicking around—the two looked up at the creature and saw, from what they knew, that it was a dog. And it was huge. At the shoulders it stood an inch over Macbeth's head.

"Oh God—" Delete whispered, clinging onto Macbeth's side and shaking violently. Buzz looked down at him, then made a signal for him to be quiet and looked back up at the giant dog, which had now begun to sniff the air, its massive head raised, as if looking for something. This was about the time that the sound reached its ears; it gave a snarl of confusion, then its head lowered to their current spot. Buzz could now see that the thing had no eyes, and he could tell by now that it was one of the Blind Trackers—what other excuse was there?

The Tracker growled again, then sniffed the horse's throat, and finally moved its head forward a few more inches. Buzz closed his eyes tightly as the thing's hot breath stung his body; he hoped that the Tracker would recognize the smell of the General and back away before it decided otherwise.

The Tracker continued to sniff for a few more seconds, then it opened its jaws partway and drew its head back a few more inches. It cocked its head slightly, as if confused, then lowered its head, made another growling sound, and turned away. With a swish of its tail, it had begun to bound away with spectacular speed back toward the grounds, which were now incredibly close to where they were standing now. Buzz, who had been tense the entire time that the Tracker had sniffed him, now relaxed, giving a sigh of relief as he did so.

"'Dat was too close," Buzz sighed; he then looked over at Delete to check if he was all right. The younger robot appeared to still be standing, but he was quaking violently and had turned a deathly pale color, as if he had just vomited. Sighing again, he grabbed Delete by the hand and slowly hoisted him up onto the horse. "It's all right, Dee-Dee, we're almost 'dere. Besides, we didn't get eaten anyway, did we?"

There was no answer from Delete, only a series of high-pitched, broken whimpers. Buzz sighed, then stroked Macbeth on the side of the neck and gently snapped her reins to get her going. The horse obeyed, although the first few steps were uneasy, and within a few more moments the entire area was in perfect view.

"Wow," Buzz finally exclaimed, looking at the heavy iron/stone gates that surrounded the grounds itself. "'Dis place looks pretty fancy. Well, I suppose it has to be 'dat way, seeing in how 'dis guy owns all of cyberspace…" He forced a weak smile. "Boy, if 'da boss were here to see 'dis, he'd probably throw a hissy fit…heh, heh. 'Dat's one good thing around here, if you talk about 'da boss, he won't even know about—"

"'Ay!"

Buzz stopped short when he heard the voice. It was called out from near the iron gates, and it sounded highly annoyed, at that. Buzz swallowed, then looked over toward the gates in time to see a pitch-black, pupil-less version of Delete (much like the ones who had ambushed them earlier) vigorously walking out from the side of the gates, an angry glare set on his face; his hand was currently reaching for the sword lanced into the side of his belt. Buzz then made a slightly frightened noise as the figure shouted:

"Who are you! And _what in blazes are you doing _on the grounds!"

Buzz was unable to answer; he merely stared straight ahead. He wasn't staring at the figure, nor the grounds itself. He wasn't exactly staring at anything, truth to be told. His eyes were just focused, along with his mind thinking, _Oh, God, no…not another one…not another hallucination…I thought that I was over this by now…_

"'Ay! Are you listening to me!" The figure appeared to be turning more annoyed by the moment. "Get out of here, and get out _now_! This is private property! We do not tolerate interlopers of any sort!" Buzz remained silent, still believing that the figure was a hallucination. "Did you hear me! I—said—get—_OUT_!"

At the last word, he unsheathed his sword and leapt forth at Buzz. Buzz noticed this at once and, thinking of the only thing to do at the moment, quickly unsheathed his own sword and raised it, just as the Delete look-alike brought his down. The two swords struck with a deafening _CLANG_, and Buzz nearly slipped off his horse again due to the vibrations that they caused. The figure, shocked and appalled, lowered his sword from Buzz's, then slowly sheathed it back into his belt, still staring at him, which Buzz was not the least bit comfortable with, needless to say.

Finally, after a long while of staring, the robot placed one hand on his chest, then _bowed_ to him. It wasn't fake, it wasn't merciful; no, it was just a simple, polite gesture, and needless to say he was taken aback by this. No one had ever bowed to him before, much less this politely. He didn't know what to think of it.

"I am deeply sorry, commander," the creature told him, straightening himself back up. "I had not known that you were to be coming here…it's been so long…and there had been rumors going around saying that you'd died—"

"Well…uh…I didn't," Buzz finally replied, sheathing his sword back in and promptly straightening himself up on the horse as so to make himself look more official. "Now, would you kindly take us to the grounds before further interruptions resume?"

"Yes, commander," the Delete look-alike responded; he then gently took Macbeth by the reins and began to lead her—and Delete as well—over toward the heavy iron gates. "I shall take you in to see Lord Machinos at once. He thinks that you're dead as well…he never told us why, though…all he said was that you betrayed us all, which I know that you would never do…" He laughed weakly. "Heh, he'll be amazed at the fact that you're still alive…"

Buzz could do nothing but weakly smile, and as the iron gates opened (he wasn't even entirely sure what had made them do that), the attention of the Rider soldiers currently stationed at the gates was drawn immediately to them. At first glance of Buzz they froze in place and stared at him, their eyes wide; several were appalled enough to drop their weapons, and several more paused to lightly bow to him on his descent up the dirt-ridden path. Buzz ignored them, however; he was too taken in by the grounds' marvelous scenery and setup to even care about what they thought of him now.

Upon arriving in front of the main building itself, the Rider that had been leading them abruptly dropped the reins and raced up the limestone stairs to the massive doors that led into the main interior. Being young and rather easily excited, he was at the top in no time and had begun to run down the hallway, his shoes clacking on the marble floor, until he finally made a sharp right and burst into one of the rooms.

The figure seated at the exquisite wooden desk at the opposite end of the room jolted out of its seat for a moment, scattering quite a bit of paperwork in the process, then it looked up rather annoyedly at the still highly excited Rider. The monocle coating its left eye flashed momentarily before it slowly rose itself up, folding its arms together atop the desk.

"Yes, Revel?" the figure replied, sounding rather peeved. "What may I do to help you?"

"Machinos, Sire, I greatly apologize for my rudeness, but the General has returned to the grounds. I led him in just a few moments ago…he's standing outside the building as we speak."

Machinos's face contorted into one of anger, but it relaxed after a few moments and said, rather jokingly, "Revel…you say that the General, my betrayer, who has been _dead_ for three years running, now, is standing outside the building?" He laughed. "Has the heat finally gone to your head, my dear comrade?"

Revel looked at Machinos in a confused manner, then shook his head. "No, Sire," he replied. "I swear upon the book itself that the General is outside the building. He's very much alive, sir. And he's got his horse and another individual with him."

"Oh, really?" Machinos slowly arose from the desk and walked out from behind it, past Revel and out the doors. "I suppose that if you're so sure about this I should look at it. But, from what I've seen of you I know very well that you more than often go off into a…'different world', I should say. I'm pretty sure that this is just another one of your mindless hallucinations." He shook his head in disapproval. "It's bad enough that you drink a barrel of rum a fortnight, Revel."

Revel glared at him but refused to answer, and the two continued in silence as Machinos slowly approached the main set of doors, which were currently thrown open, and upon passing through them looked down upon the steps. At first glance of Buzz, atop Macbeth, in the General's clothing, his look turned to one of pure anger—Revel had been correct—but when his gaze shifted down to Delete, he froze.

Delete did not know that Machinos was looking at him in such a way; he was too busy eyeing the scenery around him. That innocence…that form…the obvious fear hidden in the eyes…Machinos recognized all of these in Delete to be the exact same ones that he himself had had once, eons ago. But that couldn't be…it couldn't…he had never seen another one like him before…

This hypnotized state of his somehow allowed him to give the 'General' a chance. The far-off gaze still on his face, he descended the stairs, Revel close behind, until he finally stopped in front of Macbeth. He tapped her on the forehead—she cringed slightly—then looked over the horse's neck at Buzz and Delete, who now had his frightened gaze fixated on the tyrant.

"You need not be afraid," Machinos told Delete, trying to hide the glint of anger that always flashed behind his pupils. Delete whimpered and drew back a few more steps. "If you are an ally to me, no harm shall come upon you…unless there are signs of betrayal." He shot an angry glare up at Buzz. "How'd you get past my Blind Tracker, dare I ask?"

"It…uh…let us through," Buzz replied, shrugging a shoulder.

_He sounds like the General, too_, Machinos thought to himself; he then touched his hand to his mouth in consideration. "Then you must be worth something to me. Wielder rarely lets anyone through without trying to devour them first…" Delete whimpered again, but this time Machinos took no notice. "Tell me, why are you here?"

Buzz stuttered for a few flat seconds before finally saying, "Uh—we're here to apply for positions in your army. I heard from a rather reliable source 'dat you've been seeking a new general for years, now."

An eerily cold smile seemed to cross the tyrant's face, and he slowly nodded. "Yes," he said, in a tone as blank as his stare. "Yes, I have." He then snapped his fingers, drawing Revel to attention. "Revel!"

"Uh—um…yes, sir?" Revel replied, rather taken aback.

"Take this gentleman's horse and put it in the stable until further notice. I shall have to ask you to dismount for the time being," he informed Buzz. "You and your friend must come with me."

Buzz and Delete shot each other glances, then Buzz rather reluctantly slipped down off Macbeth, and as soon as he did Revel took the reins in one hand and began to lead the horse off down the adjacent field of grass toward a ramshackle building near the back. The two robots then stood before Machinos, Delete looking rather frightened, still, while Buzz looked a bit unsure of what this was to bring.

"Now, then," Machinos said, promptly putting his hands behind his back and turning around, "Come with me, if you would be so kind. If application for new general is what you want, I happen to just be that desperate." He paused. "Of course, there are a few things that we must discuss before I actually choose to accept you into my army."

"What do you mean by 'dat?" Buzz asked, sounding a bit uneasy yet again.

"You do know that my last general betrayed me, do you not?" Machinos told Buzz; he then held up his hand and halted Delete, who was walking in silent tone behind them. "Just a moment. You're going to stay out into the hallway until your brother is applied. Don't you dare move, or else you'll have something else coming besides application."

Delete nodded nervously, then stood still as Machinos and Buzz continued down the hall. "I felt the need to get rid of him while you're applying," he told Buzz rather firmly. "Now, where were we…? Ah, yes. As I had said before, my previous general betrayed me, and thus I was forced to kill him. Now, I know that you're trying to play a rather pathetic act by using the General's clothing to appear as if you have returned, and Revel may have let you in…"

He abruptly cleared his throat. "But that doesn't mean that I will fall for it. Your act is over, and you and I both know it now." A trickle of perspiration appeared near Buzz's left temple. "But I do not intend to kill you. Even though you are impersonating the General, I cannot deny your right to apply. And, being as desperate as I am, I'll accept even the most mediocre soldier for the job…hopefully I shall teach you to improve before duty calls. However, there are still a few more things we need to discuss before I let you in."

"Such as…?"

"Are you experienced with weaponry and strategy?" A strange glint seemed to flash through his one visible eye. "Have you fought any battles before in your lifetime?"

"I…uh…well, I have fought a few battles, but 'dey were mind battles…'da enemy was too good, and I wasn't really in charge, so we always lost no matter what we did." Machinos raised an eyebrow in his direction. "But…I…uh, I think I've sword-fought before, and I'm pretty good on a horse…"

"Fair enough," Machinos replied, although his tone sounded of hidden disappointment in just the slightest. "Mind is the one of the only things I look for in an ally, and you seem to have it. But just because you have a sense of mind doesn't mean that you're automatically in. I need to know about one more thing…"

At this, he then unsheathed his sword from his belt. Buzz flinched, at first thinking that Machinos was going to cut him, but the tyrant did nothing of the sort. Instead he tossed the sword to one side, allowing it to strike the marble floor with a deafening _CLANG_, before reaching up to the collar of his tan suit and ripping open his shirt. He then placed both hands near his sides.

"I need to have your trust, my friend," he informed Buzz. "Draw your sword. I know that many of the citizens in this world today want me dead, and I somehow think you do too." He smiled. "Well, this time I'm giving you that opportunity. Go ahead and stab me. Stab me directly through the chest. I won't run for the sword. I won't do anything to stop you. You've got one chance to end all evil in cyberspace for good…choose wisely."

Buzz obeyed, then held the sword up at eye's length, staring at his reflection in the blade along with the tyrant's exposed metallic surface behind him. Machinos was testing him, he knew. He was actually giving him an opportunity to kill him, and once he carried it out Machinos could do nothing about it. He was right, Buzz indeed had one chance to end all evil…

The stocky robot immediately thought of Ruben and Paradox: Paradox with his depressed gaze, no doubt Machinos's cause, and Ruben…Ruben with that look of raw anger, declaring that he had been wanting to kill Machinos for years…Delete wouldn't approve, he knew, but the robot was way back in the hallway…and they had turned a corner…there was no way that his little brother could see it now…

His mind was telling him to do it. _Do it for Ruben_, it told him. _Machinos is pure evil; he told you that. Ruben wants him dead. Machinos killed his father. You must kill him. You must…_

Another side of him told him not to. _You know that he's testing you, right? Ruben does want him dead, but not here. Not now…_

Kill him…kill him while you still have the chance…

No…you mustn't…it's too early, it's too risky—

This may be the only one good shot you've got at him! Use it wisely!

_No! Don't you want to kill him in a more heroic manner? Don't you want Ruben to know for sure that his father will be avenged?_

No! Kill him! KILL HIM NOW!

It finally came to the point where Buzz could take this mental battle no longer. "_AAARRRGGGHHH_!" he screamed in agony, then, ignoring the voices inside his head, thrust the blade forward…

"Codebird!" Digit exclaimed happily as the familiar purple bird landed out of the portal, in the midst of Control Central. Before Codebird could even react, Digit had run over and hugged him, then released him within a few seconds. "So good to see you again! Even though you haven't been gone that long…"

"Maybe for you," Codebird muttered, but he grinned at his alternate anyway.

Digit checked his watch as Jacqueline fell out of the portal, followed by Matthew and Zeny. "Jackie, Matt and Inez will be done with…uh…what was it called?"

"School?" Matthew suggested.

"I knew that…! Anyway, the Earthlies will be done with school any moment now, so I'll have to rely on you guys for the time being. Hacker has apparently struck again, although I don't exactly know what in cyberspace he did now…" Something then clicked inside his head. "Wait a minute…how come you guys were in Jackie's house instead of in your usual universe?"

Matthew, Zeny, and Jacqueline exchanged glances, then Matthew finally said, "Well, you see…apparently the Portal of Forty struck again. We were out in the woods when it suddenly opened, and we were pulled through…moments later we'd landed in Jackie's bedroom."

"Bad stroke of luck, I suppose," Digit sighed, rubbing the side of his head. "You weren't kidding when you said that the portal has unpredictable patterns."

"It'll be the death of me," Jacqueline sighed; that was when another portal opened up on Digit's opposite side. The group of five looked over at the swirling tunnel of light as Matt was spat out, then Jackie, then finally Inez. The three kids landed in a heap on the ground, emitting their usual groans upon doing so, then Inez, who was lying on top, got up first and looked over toward Digit.

"Hey, Didge, what's—" she began, but she stopped mid-sentence when she saw the other four alternates standing behind him. Gasping, she clapped her hand to her mouth, then quickly ran toward them, exclaiming "Oh my gosh! Zeny!" before giving her a quick embrace around the neck and standing beside her. "I didn't think I'd see you again after what happened back there…"

"Ugh…I don't want to land on my head next time…" Matt groaned, slowly getting to his feet. Still groggy from impact, he looked at the four alternates, then said, rather blandly, "Hey, where'd they come from…?"

"Matt!" Jackie exclaimed, looking down at him with her hands on her hips. "The least that you can do is say 'hi'…they've been gone for three years in their dimension." She looked up at them, then lightly waved. "Hi, guys. As you can see, I'm back from school."

"We saw," Jacqueline replied boredly, crossing her arms. "Now, tell me what exactly you do to save cyberspace in this world. Do you fight with swords, or just plain physical force?"

"Oh, no, we don't do any of that stuff here," Inez told her. "We fight Hacker with wits. We don't have any special abilities like you guys do, and we aren't very experienced with swords and all that stuff."

"Sounds like snorefest to me," Jacqueline muttered, rolling her eyes, but Matthew nudged her in the side.

"We'll be glad to help while we're here in any way we can," he assured them. "Anyway, we might as well get started before this Hacker guy really causes a lot of uproar. Where are his current coordinates?"

"What…?" Digit asked, sounding rather confused with what Matthew had said.

"He means where is he now, Didge," Inez told him.

"Oh, yeah, I knew that, I was merely testing you…um…well, Motherboard knows this stuff better than I do, and she told me that Hacker hadn't left the Northern Frontier before I called you guys in. So I think that we should check what's going on there first before we do anything else."

"Very well," Matthew said, nodding. He then looked around the area. "Wow, this place is really high-tech…reminds me of Fatherboard's place before he was killed…" He then scratched his head, a clear sign of confusion. "Where are your horses? We'll need them in order to get there faster."

"Um…they don't have any horses here," Matt told his alternate, as he began to walk out the door to the main landing area. "We get around by cybercoupe. Trust me, it'll be a lot easier in this place."

"Oh yeah," Matthew replied, sounding a little sheepish as he began to walk after Matt. "I forgot about the technology of cars…I've been in a more…primitive world, let me say, for six years."

Jackie sighed and shook her head. "After this is over, I am going to make sure that they can pass for regular people on the streets," she told Inez, who was now standing next to her. "This is so ridiculous it's not even funny."

"Yeah, maybe we should do that sometime later," Inez agreed, nodding; then the two walked out after their alternates, who had already begun to follow Matthew out the doorway.

Machinos smiled at the sword, which had now wedged itself point-first into the marble of the floor. Closing up his shirt in the best way that he could, he said, looking down at Buzz, "Well, I must say that that was quite an impressive show. Although I'm not entirely sure that you indeed wanted to kill me but saved it for later, you have earned my trust nevertheless."

However, as he said this, a flash that detected a lie went through his monocle yet again. Buzz blinked, then narrowed one eye, as Machinos walked over to pick up his sword from where it lay. "After your papers are signed, you will become my official general. I have also come upon deciding that I rather like your brother."

"What? Why? You barely know him," Buzz pointed out.

Machinos glared at him. "Why I like him differs from how much I know about him," he growled; then his tone became slightly gentler. "Either way, I would not enjoy witnessing his execution, thus I have decided upon applying him for head of my militia. His contracts will be signed shortly after yours."

"But…uh, Machinos, sir, he can't fight very well. He can barely lift a sword. Why do you think he would make a good militia soldier?"

"He'll learn," was Machinos's simple answer. He then looked over toward the direction of the room that he had been working in earlier, which was currently across the hall from them. "Come, now. Your papers must be signed."

Buzz was still rather suspicious, but followed Machinos into the room anyway. As soon as they had entered, he looked around in awe at what lay before him: the room was designed in a way very much like the exquisite library: two walls had shelves aligned with books propped up against them, and there were several portraits of Machinos on the bare spaces of the other two walls. In the back was the Machinos flag—a dark orange color with a black shape that resembled Machinos's head inside a circle—and a newly polished desk, littered with several stacks of paper and a quill pen.

"This is my workspace," Machinos told him, swatting a few of the papers off the desk. "I often go here when I need to sign contracts or add a new Amendment to the Cyber-Constitution…it does belong to me, after all, with myself being the ruler of all cyberspace as we know it…"

"Must be hard work," Buzz replied, rather lamely.

"Oh, not for someone like me," the tyrant replied rather boredly. He then took his seat in the leather chair behind the desk. "Now, then…" He licked the nib of the quill that he kept and dipped it in a nearby bottle of black India ink before taking a blank sheet of parchment in one hand. "I shall write out a contract of agreements, terms, and commands to be obeyed at all costs. Violation of such shall lead to banishment and possibly execution. Do I make myself clear on this before I put it down in permanent ink?"

"Um…uh…er…yeah, yeah, sure," Buzz replied, sounding rather nervous at the part about execution for violations of the written document.

Machinos raised an eyebrow, then finally nodded and said, placing the paper on the desk, "Very well, then. Of course, you are not in possession of these codes until you sign the document, which you _shall_ be doing. This will only take a few moments."

Buzz nodded, and patiently stood in front of the desk as Machinos quickly wrote out the document in neatly printed cursive; he then made his signature at the bottom and pushed it over in Buzz's direction, along with the quill. "Rather hastily done, I'm sorry to say, but it shall work. Now, sign the contract, if you would be so kind."

Buzz looked at Machinos, then down at the contract (which he was unable to read), then finally took the pen in one of his now trembling hands, placed it to the paper, and quickly signed his name on the bottom line. Machinos took it the moment that he finished and looked it over, then smiled coldly and rolled it up.

"Done and done," he said; he then reached out and shook the still trembling robot's hand. "Now, then, I shall go and get your brother, and afterward we shall celebrate your new addition."

"Celebrate?" Buzz asked, perking up a bit. "What do you mean by 'dat? You mean something like a party?"

Machinos smiled eerily again. "Something like that," he said, nodding. "But first things first. Go and get your brother, and bring him to me. I shall tell you further details at the celebration tonight."

Buzz nodded, smiling rather weakly, then turned around and ran out, almost tripping again on the threshold. Once he was gone from sight, Machinos looked down at the contract in his hand, then sighed and thought once again of Delete.

"My incarnation has returned," he said to the emptiness.


	6. The Welcoming

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

CHAPTER VI: The Welcoming

"Thank you kindly for your application," Machinos said, shaking Delete's hand shortly after he signed his name (in rather sloppy handwriting) on his own contract. The robotic tyrant then placed both elbows on his desk and knitted his fingers together. "Now, then, first things first. Your…brother seems to function very well fighter-wise, but you, on the other hand, need a bit of practice."

Delete looked confused. "What do you mean by that?"

Machinos sighed; he expected this answer from someone such as Delete. "Think of it this way," he told the robot, slowly getting up from his seat. "You're now a militia soldier. You have new horizons, new boundaries, new rules to follow than the ones from…wherever you may have originated from. And because of that some things need to change. Not just for the army, but for you, yourself."

"Oh…" Delete didn't want to ask any further questions about this for fear of angering the tyrant, thus he simply said, "But, where do we start?"

Machinos smiled, then placed one hand around Delete's shoulder and began to lead him out of the room. "Glad to see that you've got a bit of spirit in you," he stated, although Delete didn't know what he was referring to when he said this. "We actually have much to do to turn you into a fighter, but the first importance is for my other soldiers to recognize you as one of them. Thus, you're going to need a new outfit other than the one that you're wearing now."

Delete looked down at the usual outfit he'd been wearing for years: light blue shirt, pants to match, black shoes. He liked the way that he was dressed currently, but he knew that Machinos did have a point. The other soldiers may have looked just like him, as did Machinos (a shudder ran up his spine at this thought), but at least they had recognizable traits that clearly stated they were part of the Machinos army. He had…nothing.

"That can easily be fixed, however," Machinos informed him, the hand on his shoulder wrenching him out of the hallway (which they had been walking in when Machinos was stating the fact about recognizable features) and into an adjacent room. Delete looked around, smiling slightly as he did so; apparently this was the room of Machinos himself. It was set much in the manner of the old-fashioned Victorian-style bedroom: the large bed, the tan carpeting, the leather armchairs, the fireplace, the black-and-white prints and paintings aligned on the wall…simply, everything was here. He then looked down at Machinos, who had abandoned his shoulder and was now sorting through a rather large coat closet of some sort.

Delete watched him patiently, not daring to sit in the armchairs near him, until Machinos finally fished an outfit out of the racks and walked over to him. Before Delete could even get a good glimpse of what the outfit looked like, he thrust it into his hands, along with a pair of black boots.

"This was one of my older outfits…I wore it back during my first fights, when I was nothing but a mere commander of the forces. It rather suits you now, so I suppose that it'll have to do." He then began to walk out of the room, gripping the brass handle of the large door as he did so. "I'll give you a few moments to fit it on. Don't try anything stupid." He then slammed the door shut, leaving Delete, indeed, alone.

The robot looked around nervously for a few moments, then finally let the clothes slip from his hands and drop to the floor. Deciding that it didn't matter now that Machinos was gone, he took his seat on one of the armchairs and, picking up one of the black, dark-gray rimmed boots from the floor, looked at it for a moment, then hesitantly slipped it on.

It was much taller than he expected it would be—the boots were no doubt the knee-high ones old-world soldiers used to wear. They came up well past his knees, however; heck, they were almost as tall as his legs altogether. The top only came within inches of meeting his torso. Making sure that the boot was a good fit, he nodded, then slipped on the other one.

Pausing to look down at himself for a few seconds, he then looked up at the outfit itself, which was still strewn out on the ground. Walking over, he bent down and picked it up, then unfolded it and held it up in front of him, as so to get a better look. The outfit was a dull green, and had a button-down front (much like his old shirt) and an open collar. The cuffs were a brighter green, the buttons were brass, and it had a belt interlined through the loops near the middle. Deciding that it couldn't be all that bad, he decided to try it on over his older outfit; even if Machinos didn't like it he didn't want to be without at least one thing that showed him that he belonged back in cyberspace.

Slipping it on rather quickly, he buttoned the outfit, then fastened the belt and looked down at himself yet again. Sighing, he saw that the outfit's buttons did not show below the belt, and even though he and Machinos were apparently the same size, the outfit was a tight fit around him. Thus, the bottom wrapped around his body and upper legs very much like a mini-skirt, which he was none too happy with.

"I need a mirror," he said to himself, and was about to walk over to the closet to see if there was one in the back when the doors opened yet again, and Machinos entered. The robotic tyrant looked up at Delete, then another feeling of déjà vu crossed him again, and he shook his head and looked away as Delete turned to face him, having sensed his presence.

"Oh, hi," Delete said timidly; he then held out his arms. "Do I look okay? I mean, I don't look too…wrong or anything, do I?"

Machinos finally mustered the courage to look at him, then abruptly shook his head. "No, you look fine…" He sighed. "Although I fear very little, I am rather disturbed at your presence. You look more like a splitting image of me than do any of my Dark Riders. Lordy, if people thought that I could actually biologically reproduce they may have considered you my son…"

That last sentence moved Delete like nothing other, and his mouth trembled slightly, but he refused to cry in front of Machinos for such a small reason and swallowed, then said, rather shakily, "Well, then…I'm glad I look okay."

"Oh, yes, yes, you have no need to worry about it," Machinos replied; he now sounded stronger than he had before. "Now, then, I have a few other things in mind for you, but nothing more shall happen until this evening…we shall have a celebration for you two. God knows how long I've been looking for someone to fill in the gaps of my army."

Delete nodded, then followed Machinos out of the room and let him disappear down the hallway. He then stood in the center of the hall, not knowing what to do until evening (it was still late morning in their terms), thus he looked around him, then craned his head backward and decided to go that way. This place was something entirely new to him; he might as well get used to it while he was still here.

"Wow!" Codebird stated, as he looked down at the many controls of the kids' cybercoupe. He pointed at the nearest one. "What's that thing, that one right there?"

Digit, who was driving the coupe at the moment and currently seated in front of him, looked up at his alternate. "Uh…that's called a radio," he explained. "It plays music when you push that button…you can even choose your station if you want."

"Amazing!" Codebird said; he then leaned over the leather cushioning of the coupe. "How does it work? Is there a little miniature band in there or something?" He eyed the speakers with great interest. "I didn't even know they made those."

"Uh…well, that's one way to put it," Digit told him, smiling rather weakly. "Actually, we get our music from satellite. It's a…rather large metallic object out in cyberspace that sends out radio waves…and…it helps transfer…different things to radios and televisions. They're a very helpful part of our society around here."

"Man, you guys have everything!" Codebird exclaimed; he then slid over the front of the seat, nearly landing on top of Jackie. "Why don't we have these kinds of things in our world if it's only opposite yours?"

"Probably because your world is a lot more…how do I say this…primitive," Inez told him. "You have all the things that were around in the 1800s or so, while we're at the current time of…the more common universe. But don't worry about it, I'm sure that you'll get used to it in a few moments' time."

"That's what I said earlier, but no one actually listened," Matthew sighed, leaning back against the seat. "Geez, I forgot what it was like to lie back on a seat…" He looked out the window. "Wow, this place is pretty barren compared to our version of cyberspace."

"That's only because the cybersites are farther apart than in yours," Matt told him, leaning forward and looking over at him.

"Well, that may be so, but I still think it's barren, and there's no changing my mind on that part, thank you very much."

Matt rolled his eyes, then looked out the front of the coupe and exclaimed, pointing at a nearby cybersite, "Digit, over there! That's the Northern Frontier, guys," he added, looking at Matthew, Jacqueline, Zeny, and Codebird as he said this. "It's where the current villain of our cyberspace lives."

"I think that's pretty easy to decipher, Matt," Jacqueline replied, raising an eyebrow at the barren landscape as Digit brought the cybercoupe lower to the ground. "Kind of reminds me of our version a little…"

"Well, yeah, but that's only because it's barren," Inez sighed, looking out the front window. After a few moments of silence, the Latino girl sighed in relief as the Hacker's lair finally appeared over the dusty, barren horizon. "Whew, we're finally here at last!"

"Just a few more seconds, Nezzie," Digit replied, as he turned the steering controls on the coupe's panel forward, giving them a bit more thrust. It was then that he realized his mistake. "Uh, sorry, didn't mean to call you that."

"It's fine, Didge," Inez sighed, holding up her hand. Digit nodded and grinned weakly, then stepped on the brake pedal as he slowly lowered the coupe to the ground, right next to the common billboard-type sign that was stationed almost in front of the lair itself (as so to hide the vehicle from view).

"'Welcome to the Northern Frontier, Home of The Hacker'," Matthew read, looking up at the sign as Digit brought the coupe to a halt. "Wow, if that's not a complete giveaway, I don't know what is."

"Just get out of the coupe, okay?" Matt told him, nudging him with his foot. Matthew shot him a "look"—Matt wasn't exactly sure what to call it—then opened the door and, due to the cramped, insignificant space within, ended up falling out as soon as the door clicked, landing on his chest and knocking the wind out of him. Matt, who had been sitting next to him in the coupe, lost his balance as well, but only ended up falling onto the seat. He looked down at his alternate.

"You know, for a sixteen-year-old you're pretty clumsy," he remarked, raising an eyebrow.

Matthew made a noise that couldn't be mistaken for anything more _but_ a growl, then said, his voice slightly muffled by the dirt, "Just get out of the coupe and let's deal with this guy already, okay?" He paused to pull himself up, spitting out a wad of dust as he did so. "I'd like to do something other than lie around in this God-forsaken dirt all day."

"Oh, yeah, that's the way to go, Matthew," Jacqueline said sarcastically, as she pushed past Matt and leapt out of the coupe, her feet precious inches from where Matthew was currently knelt. She cracked her knuckles and looked out toward the towering structure yards away from them. "But I agree. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to fight."

"I hope that you don't mean physically?" Inez said, as Digit opened the door on the opposite side and hopped out.

"What do you mean by that?" Jacqueline replied, crossing her arms and leering at her. "Of _course_ I mean physically! That's the one and only way to fight a villain—you've got to get right down to their weak points, and that's the time you give 'em a good old fashioned uppercut to the jaw—" She punched the air with her fist—"To make 'em see the light. You've got to know that if you ever want to be a good fighter, girl."

Inez's face flushed, and she said, her voice sounding rather forced, "Thank you for the tip, but we're used to fighting with wits and we'll stick to that." She paused to look over at Jackie and Zeny as they began to get out of the other coupe door. "Now, let's just go find Hacker and find out what he's up to before anything else happens."

"Don't step on me!" Matthew hollered as Zeny and Jackie readied themselves to exit the coupe.

The main dining hall was quite noisy, much noisier than both Delete and Buzz had expected it to be. Then again, the Machinos grounds housed an entire army of soldiers, thus they figured that the sheer level of noise was just something that they would have to get used to.

The dining hall was unlike any place they had ever been in before. For one thing, it was absolutely enormous—the ceiling reached the height of a small, two-story house, complete with a large row of old-fashioned chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, burning dimly due to their lack of kerosene fuel. The walls were lined with oil paintings of people and places that the two had never seen before, and the floor was made of wooden planks nailed together and polished to a keen shine. Aligned neatly in the room, side by side, were wooden banquet tables, each one designed to seat about one hundred soldiers or so. Near the front of the room was another table, set on a place much higher than the others, only this one was made entirely from limestone and was much smaller compared to the mass of the tables in front of it. Machinos was now standing behind it, with Buzz and Delete positioned on either side of him, and a wine glass was held in one of his hands.

He waited for a few moments before finally shouting, his voice echoing throughout the large room, "My comrades! Draw thy attention to me!"

At hearing this, the soldiers immediately stopped talking and turned to look at him, even the ones seated away from him. Machinos made sure that every last one of them had their eye set on him, then he continued, holding up the wine glass, "As you might have known, I had been searching for a new general since the unfortunate demise of our last one." His eyes shifted to one side as he said those last two words, then he fixated them back on the crowd. "For three years I have searched, and now I have finally been proven successful!"

The crowd cheered, then the shouts died out as Machinos held up his hand, then said, continuing to keep the wine glass up, "Now is a time to celebrate, my comrades. Such an event cannot go by unnoticed. Thus, I shall start off by proposing a toast: to our new fellow general and militia leader, here." He gestured toward Buzz, then Delete.

"To the general and militia!" the soldiers agreed; there then was the high-pitched clanking noises of glass against glass as the soldiers toasted. Buzz and Delete cringed slightly, but finally the clanking died out, and the soldiers drank. Buzz sighed in relief, then looked up at Machinos, who had already downed the wine and was now looking over at him, his hands still placed on the table's edge.

"Overwhelmed by the attention you're receiving yet?" the tyrant asked cockily.

Buzz looked at him for a split second. "What do you mean? I've been standing up here 'da entire time you gave 'da toast, and I still haven't even been so much as glanced at—"

"'Ay! Pray-two! Geddown here!"

Buzz blinked, slightly confused, then looked down at the nearest table, where the voice had supposedly come from. Sure enough, a group of soldiers seated at that table had taken notice of him and were now staring at him, the entire lot of them; the front one seemed slightly drunk. Buzz guessed that he had been the one who had spoken. But what did he mean by "Pray-two"…?

"'Ay!" the soldier exclaimed again, gesturing his empty wine glass in Buzz's direction. "I'm talkin' to you, Pray-two! I said geddown here! You're missing out on the festivities, don't you know?"

Buzz looked down at him some more, then looked up at Machinos, who crossed his arms, grinned, and nodded his head slowly. Buzz then looked back down at the soldiers, who appeared ready for him to step down from the table and join them. Buzz continued to stare a few more moments, then he shrugged; since he was the new general he might as well be the one calling his own shots. He began to descend from the higher ground on which the table rested, then finally leapt off the last step and casually walked over to where the soldiers were currently seated.

"Well, ish about time you joined us, Pray-two," the soldier in front said upon seeing him. "Come on up. We saved another wine glass for yas…" He picked a full wine glass up from the table and handed it to him. Buzz looked at it, then backed up a step.

"Um…I, uh, don't really drink," Buzz replied, rather nervously.

"Come on," the soldier replied, pushing the glass in the most delicate way possible (if that was even possible at all) into his gloved hand. "Ish not drinking, ish just a way of our place. Besides, one glass won't hurt yas at all. Now, Revel, here—" He clapped the Rider that had let them into the grounds earlier on the shoulder—"Revel is hopeless. He drinks about a barrel of rum a day…strong stuff, it is. Heh, he's too far gone for us to even help 'im now."

"Oh, I am _not_," Revel responded, crossing his arms and glaring at the soldier.

"Don't listen to him," the soldier told Buzz, who was now looking at them rather oddly. "He's too drunk to even know that he's drunk at times. Heck, once he almost let the Blind Trackers loose and said that it was because they was…callin' to him or something…"

"I did no such thing," Revel objected. "Do yourself a favor, and stop flattering yourself."

"I ain't flattering myself," the soldier guffawed. "Flattery gets you nowhere."

Buzz watched the two as they bantered back and forth, then sighed and finally, deciding that it was indeed no big deal, downed the wine glass. It was much stronger than it appeared; he coughed a few times, then shook his head and looked down at the empty glass. Now that the aftershock had passed, it wasn't that bad, he thought…and, after all, since Hacker wasn't here and he was now the new general, he supposed that he didn't have to worry about much tonight, either way. Walking up to the table, he took a seat between Revel and the other soldier and set the glass on the table, then stood up and snatched one of the wine bottles off the table.

Machinos smiled as he watched the scene. "It seems as if your brother is doing just fine with the other soldiers," he told Delete, who was now staring almost longingly at the scene below them. "I'm quite sure that he'll be much more popular than Pray ever was."

Delete looked confused; that was the second time that he had heard that word—or, more appropriately speaking, that name. "Who's Pray?" he asked, almost innocently. Machinos's eyes widened slightly, then he quickly collected himself.

"Oh, well, Pray was just my old general," Machinos replied, rather casually. He then put his hands behind his back and turned away from the dining hall scene. "Now, Delete, I have something else for you as of late." He made a hand gesture that signaled for the robot to follow him. "Please come with me."

He then walked down the steps. Delete looked at him, still looking rather confused, then shook his head and began to walk down after him. He followed the tyrant very much like a puppy out of the dining hall, then into the main hall, where Machinos began to head over toward the main exit. Neither one spoke as they went away from the loud talking and cheering going on in the dining hall; Machinos didn't say a word, in fact, until they had gotten outside and were now walking down the steps of the main building.

"Now, I noticed upon your arrival that your brother had a horse, but you did not," Machinos informed Delete. "There is one rule for the army leaders: you cannot go without a horse. It's one of the most important elements of attack for the leaders and experienced horsemen. Thus, I have come upon a solution for you."

"You're gonna give me a horse?" Delete asked, rather excitedly.

Machinos only shifted his gaze over to him for a second. "Yes, I'm going to give you a horse," he said, nodding. "Not for your want of one, of course; just because you need one. Sadly, I couldn't find very many good horses left in my stable…but I managed to find a good one nonetheless."

They were now standing directly in front of the stable, which Delete recognized as the building that Revel had led Macbeth away to earlier in the day. He now stared at it as Machinos took a few steps forward, then shoved the doors open, causing them to bang against the woodwork of the inner frame. The musty smell of manure and hay wafted out of the doors, but both robots appeared unfazed.

"I decided that your horse should be the pick of the litter," Machinos told him as they entered the rather dark and musty stable. "The head militia deserves only the best, you know. And I am grateful that you applied when you did, for I recently received a new addition shortly after a few of my best soldiers set out to train the new recruits." He now stopped directly in front of a rather large stall, which could be seen from the moonlight shining through the window inside it. Delete saw nothing at first, then something twitched over to the right, and within a few moments a large and muscular horse stepped past the beam, if only for a few seconds before vanishing into the darkness again.

The horse was one of the loveliest ones that Delete had seen in a long time—it was a pure milky white color, from the tips of its ears to its hooves. Silver hints glinted in the coat, the tail fell halfway past the legs, and the eyes had been an odd bright pink color. Machinos smiled as the horse lay down in a nearby pile of hay, then snorted and scraped one of its front hooves along the dust.

"This is Silver Arrow," he informed Delete, gesturing toward the horse with an odd show of pride in his voice. "She's an albino stallion, one of the first ones to show up around these parts in eons. Quick as lightning, alert, strong…she's basically almost everything you could wish for in a good battlefield horse." His eyes then narrowed slightly. "She's rather feisty, though…it would take you a bit of time to learn to ride her…"

"Is she…um…fierce?" Delete asked, sounding rather nervous.

"Bucked one of my best horsemen clear off," Machinos sighed. Delete made a quiet whimpering noise. "It wasn't serious, though. Nothing that a good supply of tonic wouldn't fix." He shook his head. "But you're going to have to wait until tomorrow morning for accurate lessons. Besides Nebulon, I seem to be the only one who can ride her without receiving a broken appendage."

The horse seemed to know that the two were talking about her; she looked up in their direction and cocked her head ever so slightly. "She's awful pretty, though," Delete sighed, leaning against the iron bar that secured the horse within the pen.

"'Pretty' loves no one," Machinos replied, sounding rather strict. Delete looked up at him, the nervous gaze returning, but the tyrant's glare quickly softened, and he clapped a hand on Delete's shoulder. "But you shouldn't worry about what I say. I'm sure that Silver Arrow may like you if you know how to handle her correctly." He then abruptly snapped his fingers. "Oh, yes, and there was something else that I wanted to give to you, too."

"Really?" Delete was now enlivened with curiosity. "What is it?"

An eerie smile escaped Machinos's lips. "You should consider yourself lucky. I've been waiting for years to pass this down…I've never allowed anyone to handle it except myself. But you _must_ be gentle with it…"

He then reached toward the opposite side of his belt and unhitched something from it, then handed it to Delete. The robot looked over it, then finally reached toward one of the ends and drew out another sword.

It differed from the ones that he had seen before, though. This one was not made of a dull silver; it appeared to be made of both silver and steel; the blade was still sharp—or so it appeared to be, anyway. The end was made of gold, with odd patterns interwound through it, and at the area where the blade met the end was positioned a blood red jewel. Delete spent a few moments turning it over, looking at it in awe; he then finally looked up at Machinos, his eyes wide like those of a child's who had just received exactly what he wanted for a Christmas present.

"Is this…is this for me?" he asked, his voice slightly faltered.

Machinos nodded. "It's all yours," he told the robot. "I found it in my weaponry display case and decided that you should have it. Of all the swords I had collected in battles, this one was my ideal favorite." He sighed. "I picked it up from a battlefield whose name I shall not mention. It was just as sharp as it was when I first got it…" He shook his head and looked down at the floor.

"Wow…gee…thank you," Delete replied, lowering the sword. "I'll be sure to be careful with it." He then attached the covering to his belt and sheathed the sword back into it. "I guess I must…well…kind of remind you of…a relative or something, don't I?"

"Like the son I never had," Machinos responded, wrapping one of his arms around Delete's shoulder. "Now, then, now that that's over what say we go back to the festivities? I've only scheduled it to last for a few more hours."

"Sure," Delete responded, as the two left the stable and began to head back in the direction of the noise.


	7. Abigail

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

CHAPTER VII: Abigail

The festivities were now over, and Buzz, having had a slight overdose on the wine, was now staggering down the hallway, his eyes glazed over and a slightly artificial, joyous attire about him. Revel, who had been walking with him earlier, had now left to go off to the soldiers' quarters, which, Delete suspected, were farther off from the main building itself. He was still brimming with happiness on account of the fact that Machinos had given him the most prized possession he owned; the robot was still gently handling the sword, taking care not to walk too fast, let alone skip.

"'Ay, Dee-dee!" Buzz called from the hallway, waving at him awkwardly. "'At was some party back 'dere, huh?" He then fell over to one side and would've hit the ground if he hadn't had the support of a nearby door to break his fall. "We gotta do 'at again some time."

"Um…yeah," Delete replied, not exactly wanting to be around his brother—or anyone, for that matter, when they were drunk. Drunken people had been known to act violent, especially the ones with large overdoses, and he didn't want to get near Buzz for fear of this. "Uh, listen, Buzzie, I'm just going to go and try to find my room now, okay? I'm feeling a bit—tired, let me say."

"Tired? Ha!" Buzz laughed; Delete indeed thought that it sounded drunk as well. "Well, let me tell ya 'dis, Deeds…ya never get tired if ya drink 'a right stuff. Whoo!" He fell against the door, this time sliding downward and hitting the floor. However, he didn't seem to notice the pain, nor the fact that he was being stared at. "'A world is spinning now…"

Delete didn't answer, but instead slowly backed up, and was about to turn around again when he smashed head-on into one of the soldiers sent to inspect the area after night hours. The two made gasping noises and stumbled backward; the soldier was the first one to regain his balance and look down at the other (namely, Delete).

"Hey! Watch where you're—" He then caught himself before he could finish. "What I mean to say is, I'm sorry, sir. I apparently wasn't watching where I was going at the moment, and neither were you, I'm sorry to say."

"Nah, it was my fault," Delete replied, straightening out his uniform and getting to his feet. "Hey, that reminds me of something…do you know where I'm supposed to sleep? I know that you guys sleep in the soldiers' quarters, and Buzz gets the previous general's old room…"

"Oh, yeah, right," the soldier replied, nodding. "The head militia…well, I'm sorry to have to say this, but you're going to have to sleep out in the soldiers' quarters along with the rest of us. The rest of the militia is there too…currently, of course."

"Oh…well, thanks," Delete replied, sounding slightly disappointed. He looked down the hallway. "Do you know where the soldiers' quarters are, then? 'Cause I'd like to go there and try to get some rest, if you don't mind."

"'Course I know where the soldiers' quarters are; I sleep there, remember?" the soldier replied, with a slight laugh in his tone; he then pointed down the hallway behind him. "Just go out the main doors, and walk over toward the stable. The soldiers' quarters are lined up directly behind there, in rows. Can't miss 'em once you get there."

"Thanks," Delete replied, smiling and nodding; he then walked past the soldier and down the hallway, away from Buzz, thankfully. He shook his head. Here was Buzz's first taste of old style alcohol and he went completely overboard. It must be more addictive than he thought, because Buzz normally wasn't like that…

He shook his head, then once again went out the main doors and down the stairs. He knew the way to the stable by walking back and forth from it with Machinos; it was to the right, then between the small grove of trees, across the grass, and behind the main part of the building itself…

He looked up. Sure enough, there it was: the large, barn-like structure of the stable. For a moment he almost had the urge to go inside and look at his horse again; the first sight of her had been a rather enchanting experience for him, but he refrained himself from doing so. Silver Arrow was a beautiful horse, but she was also dangerous to ride; he knew that by fact. He knew that he shouldn't until the next morning, when he could actually get some help…

Sucking in a breath, he walked past the stable and along the long side, until he finally came to the end. Looking around to the back, he could now see, sure enough, the soldiers' quarters: long, wooden buildings lined up along the side of the grounds' gate. Although it was after hours, the lights were still on in most of the windows, and he could hear several whoops and hollers from within, along with the sound of shattering glass; apparently they hadn't exactly finished their drunken party yet. Not exactly wanting to go in there at that precise moment, he turned back around toward the stable—and the urge to go inside struck him again.

He knew that he shouldn't do it, but this time the urge was too strong to fight. He broke off into a run alongside the stable, then made a sharp left to the front and burst in through the doors, startling several of the horses within. Macbeth, who already knew him from their previous encounter, made a snorting noise and stood still, while some of the other horses pawed the air; yet some more backed off. He ignored them and began to walk toward the back; there was only one horse that he wanted to see now.

Silver Arrow was now standing at the gate; her silvery features glinted under the rays of moonlight that entered through the window, and her dark blue shadow washed onto the hay-covered floor. Delete slowly approached her, then extended his hand. She snorted, then backed up a few steps and stomped one of her hooves in the dirt.

"It's okay," Delete said softly, as so to reassure her. "Come on, horsey. I won't hurt you at all…"

The horse looked at him for a few more seconds, then took one step back, one step forward, then finally approached the iron bar again. She nudged him in the shoulder with her nose, jolting him slightly to one side, but he ignored this and extended his hand again as so to stroke her. She allowed him this time, thankfully.

"That's a good girl," Delete said softly. "Now, then, my name is Delete, and I'm your new master. But in order for you to actually work out okay with me you gotta let me ride you. Will you let me do that?"

The horse nickered in response; Delete hoped that this meant "yes", for he knew that although he shouldn't do it now—especially when Machinos didn't know about it—he was going to try and ride her, or at least mount her. He had never been in control of anything before, much less a horse, and he needed all the practice that he could get before the call for an unexpected fight came up somewhere. Still keeping one hand on her nose, he reached down and slowly unhitched the iron bar from its wooden post.

As the gate swung open, the horse took a few more steps forward, pushing Delete back, slightly. The bridle was still on; Machinos had told him that he always kept a simple bridle on every one of his horses in case for emergency, and he didn't exactly need a saddle at the moment, so this would be rather easy. Slowly walking over to one side, he placed both hands on her back, then swung himself up onto her.

As soon as he took up the reins, Silver Arrow, not used to having something on her back (she had only been a domesticated horse for two days), immediately sprung into action—the negative kind, in Delete's case. Emitting a loud and slightly frightened whinny, she reared up, pawed the air with her hooves, then charged full speed out of the stable, with Delete holding on for dear life (obviously). The robot at first thought that it would be impossible to control her, but he found that by tugging the reins he was able to slow her somewhat, although he couldn't exactly control her fully—by means, change her direction. The horse was still frantically racing along the grounds, not exactly sure where she was going, and her rider didn't notice that they were in an unfamiliar part of the grounds until it was too late.

"Come on, slow down!" Delete pleaded to the horse, but Silver Arrow apparently didn't understand proper English commands yet. She veered off sharply to the right, almost bucking her rider off in the process, then galloped up a rather shallow hill, before finally leaping over a rickety fence and dashing through what now appeared to be a series of very poorly constructed houses. Delete closed his eyes tightly and, now clutching the horse's mane for dear life, waited for the time when speed would finally get the better of her—and be the death of him.

It never happened, however, for just as she was halfway through the area, a charcoal gray cat creature, who had been out to fetch some water from the well in the center of the area, looked up in time to see the horse galloping at her full speed. However, instead of moving, as any other individual would've done in such a situation, she instead stepped off to the side, then, just as the horse passed her, she reached up and, with lightning quick reflexes, snatched the reins and tugged on them—hard. Silver Arrow let out a loud cry before finally slowing to a halt; the inertia of the halt sent Delete forward, up onto the top of the horse's neck; he eventually slipped off once Silver Arrow lowered her head and landed headfirst on the ground.

Once the stars cleared from his mind, he looked up at the cat creature, who was now trying to calm the horse. When her efforts didn't work, she eventually took the reins and tied them to the well to prevent the horse from running away again, then looked down at Delete, a vexed glare now set upon the catlike features of her face.

"What the hell did you think you were doing!" she yelled at him, before he could even get the words out of his mouth. "That horse could've torn apart the entire area as we know it for all I care. You _imbecile_! Don't you even know how to _ride_ a horse?!"

Delete looked up at her, then finally admitted, lowering his gaze to the ground, "Well, actually…no, I don't. I-I was just trying to see if I could control her…she looked nice enough from a distance…"

The cat creature's gaze then softened, and she shook her head. "That's what everyone thinks at first," she sighed. "I had an experience like that myself. I suppose that I can't blame you for the time being…" She helped him to his feet. "But you have to know the basics before you learn to ride a horse, _especially_ a stallion."

"Why? Do you know how to ride one?" he asked.

"Well…kind of," she admitted, shrugging a shoulder. "I used to ride them a while back. At some other place…in some other life…" She trailed off for a few moments, then quickly snapped back to attention. "Anyway, yes, I do know the basics of riding a horse. Everyone has to know that in these areas."

"Could you teach me?" he said, a slight trace of hope in his voice. The cat creature looked down at him, then sighed and looked off toward the empty horizon; she didn't have the time nor the permission, it seemed, to teach the head militia (she could clearly tell by the markings on the jacket), being the slave that she was. Then again, he did seem fairly nice, and he looked like he could be pretty helpful, too…if she helped him, maybe he would help her eventually…

She looked down at him, then nodded her head. "Yes, I could teach you," she replied. "But it'll take time, okay? I'm…well, to be honest, you've actually entered the slaves' quarters, and I'm apparently—" She sighed again. "One of their kind…"

"Oh," Delete replied, shuffling one of his feet along the dirt. "I'm sorry…"

"There's no one to blame here but Machinos," she replied, patting him on the shoulder. "And, speaking of Machinos, he shouldn't know that you're out here as is. I'll bet you anything that if he finds one of the horses in his stable missing—"

"Ooh, you're right!" Delete suddenly realized, sounding rather nervous. "I've gotta get back, but—I used Silver Arrow to get here, and I don't know how to ride her, and I can't walk her back with the way she's acting right now—"

"Never mind it, never mind it," the feline replied, holding up her hand. "I'll walk her back after you're in the soldiers' quarters where you belong. I've handled horses a lot before; she shouldn't be any different than the other captures Machinos has made in the past."

"Thanks," Delete replied, smiling weakly. He then shook her hand and began to turn around to head back toward the soldiers' quarters. The feline creature watched as he departed, then turned to look at Silver Arrow and, still holding the reins tightly in one hand, stroked the horse's nose with the other.

"He knows something," she muttered to herself.

Delete awakened at dawn and ran up toward the slaves' quarters as quickly as possible to meet the feline at the top of the hill. Deciding not to use Silver Arrow the very first time (she wasn't exactly his level), he found that she had brought out another one of the horses: a pitch-black horse by the name of Jackson. The reins were already adjusted, and the feline was now standing at its side, her hand placed on the shoulder-blade. Upon noticing Delete at the top of the hill, she smiled and waved.

"Over here!" she called. Delete looked over toward the direction of the noise, then smiled and walked up beside her.

"Thanks again for trying to teach me, I actually couldn't thank you enough," he told her, rubbing the back of his head shyly. "But I need to know somethin' first…I don't know your name. Could you possibly tell it to me?"

The cat creature bit her lip, then finally nodded and said, her voice sounded rather forced, "Abigail Felinus. And yours?"

"Um…Delete," the robot replied. A shock of electricity then passed through his antennae, and he suddenly recalled something that he had forgotten earlier. "Hey, your last name reminds me of a friend I made a few days ago…only his name was Ruben. He was the one who sent us here in the first—" He stopped when he saw Abigail's expression. "Um…are you okay?"

He had noticed that upon hearing Ruben's name Abigail's eyes had widened, and her mouth had dropped open slightly. She was now staring at him, refusing to blink, for a few moments, then she finally shook her head to clear the feeling and said, almost in disbelief, "You know Ruben Felinus?"

Delete nodded and placed his hands behind his back. "Uh-huh. Me and Buzz met him when we first arrived here…in this world, that is. He actually saved us from a group of those soldiers back there…" He jabbed his finger in the direction of the main grounds. "He's a really nice guy, 'cept I remembered him sayin' something about how he got shot in the back…"

"Oh, thank God," Abigail said, her hands clasped, she then noticed the look of puzzlement on Delete's face. "Delete, Ruben is my son. And the reason that he told you that he had gotten shot in the back was because of Machinos. He invaded our territory three years ago. He killed my husband and other son and daughter, and shot Ruben…I thought for sure that he was dead as well. He took me captive, and somehow I have forgotten why." She grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him forward to the point where their noses were three inches from each other. "You've got to tell me where he is. And you've got to get me out of here."

"Well…um…he's currently in the woods from all I know," Delete replied; he then removed the feline's hands from his shoulders and straightened his posture. "But I dunno how to get you out of here, sadly. Buzz and Ruben were the main planners, but Buzz isn't here right now, and I don't think he will be for a while…"

Abigail raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"Drank too much," Delete sighed, shifting his eyes in the other direction. "Acted like a complete lunatic last night, and I'll bet that he's going to sleep 'till noon—he does that sometimes when we drink too much coffee an' stuff. And after that I heard Machinos say that they're going to have several drills in case of emergency…that may take up a bit of time."

Abigail sighed and shook her head. "Okay, then, I'll just teach you to ride the horse for the time being," she replied. "But as soon as you find Buzz, tell him that you met someone who is ready and willing to help you with your plan…whatever it is."

Delete considered for a moment. "Well…Ruben did say that we should find a few of the slaves and ask them to help us, so I suppose that'll work out just fine," he replied, shrugging a shoulder. "Now…how am I supposed to ride this thing?" He looked up at Jackson, who stomped his hoof impatiently and snorted.

"Well, Jackson is one of the older horses, so he can tolerate much," Abigail replied. "I need to see you mount him first. Did your stallion go berserk before or after you mounted her?"

"She reared up and started running as soon as I mounted," Delete replied. "If I hadn't she would've dragged me for the next 500 yards, and I'm thankful that she didn't in this case."

"Saddle or no?"

"She wasn't wearing one. None of the horses were wearing one."

"Well, then, I'm supposing that you don't need much help with your mounting. It's rather hard to mount a horse when it's bareback, especially one as big as her." She gently nudged him in the back, toward Jackson's direction. "Now, go ahead and mount him. I'll slip on after you."

Delete nodded, then walked up to Jackson and easily mounted him, with Abigail getting on after. She then reached forward and took the reins, thrusting them into the robot's hands. "Now, then, I want you to try and _gently_ lead him. Just snap the reins to get him moving, but not too hard. Hard snapping more than often causes whiplash."

Delete obeyed, and Jackson broke off into a brisk trot alongside the fence. Abigail nodded at this performance, then added, "And to lead him to either side, you have to touch the reins to a certain side of his head. It's rather simple, actually…if you desire to move him left, touch them to the right; and for the opposite, touch them left. Now, we're coming up to the side, here…" She pointed ahead at the other end of the fence. "So just make him go to the right."

The robot found this indeed to be rather simple, and Jackson had a rather sensitive mouth, it seemed. The horse turned to the right at the slightest touch, without any shows of stubbornness that Silver Arrow surely would have done. Abigail, watching and mentally recording this inside her head, nodded again, then decided that Delete pretty much knew the basics; they just had to practice in order for him to look like he had truly been riding a horse all his life.

"You're doing good," was all she said, however. "All we need to do is get the hang of this, and you'll probably be able to ride Silver Arrow. I don't see why you had any problems with her in the first place; you technically know most of the basics by mind."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. I think that the main problem is that Silver Arrow is a wild horse and hasn't been broken in yet. You've got to give the professionals some time to do that before you even _think_ about mounting her again, okay?"

Delete nodded in agreement. "Okay."

"Good. I'm glad we have an agreement on that." She smiled and patted his shoulder, a warm gesture that made him smile internally. "Now, then, you'd best get back down to the grounds before someone notices that you're here. Machinos doesn't exactly like the leaders conversing with the slaves."

Delete halted Jackson, and the two slipped off before Abigail took the horse's reins in one hand, then began to lead him back in the direction of the well. Delete watched them from a distance for a few moments, then quickly turned around and began to run back down the hill. Halfway down, however, he smashed headlong into another soldier, and the two lost their balance at once and, in a few seconds, had ended up at the bottom of the hill again, panting in shock and looking rather disturbed.

The soldier was the first one to get up. "You know, what I'm wondering is _how in cyberspace_ you can manage to smash into me every time we meet."

Delete got to his feet next. "I'm sorry," he replied rather softly. "I didn't exactly expect to find you here. Why are you going up to the slaves' quarters, anyhow?"

"Machinos wants another one of our sheep butchered for tonight," the soldier sighed, crossing his arms. "Actually, he wants five killed in order to feed the army. Since we're usually not the ones to carry it out, he sends one of us up the hill to go retrieve some slaves to do the job for us. That's what they're meant for, after all." He shrugged a shoulder.

"Oh…" Delete didn't want to start another argument with the soldier, thus he merely asked, as it had been in his head most of the morning, "Um…do you know where Buzz went? I heard Machinos say that they were gonna run some drills today…"

"They are." The soldier nodded. "And they've already left for the forest to do them."

"What?" Delete didn't expect this answer. "But I thought Buzz was—"

"Yes, he was still half drunk when I got him up this morning. However, he'll come to his senses soon enough; Machinos took him and a few more of the soldiers out into the forest for a practice drill. They say that firing within the grounds could cause quite a few risks."

"Well, I can understand that…"

"Actually, he used to, but withdrew from it after three soldiers were killed thanks to bad aim. Ever since then, we've been more careful…" He snapped back into reality. "Anyway, would you mind letting me up there, now? Those sheep won't kill themselves, you know."

"Oh, okay," Delete replied, stepping aside as so to let the soldier pass.

__

I don't even know why I agreed to this, Buzz thought to himself as he guided Macbeth over a fallen log. Machinos had, indeed, called him and about ten other soldiers together for drills, and they had just entered the forest and were heading for the center, near the waterfall and possibly Crucible Grounds. They marched in a packed group; all of the soldiers behind them carried rifles over their shoulders, and every individual in the group was equipped with a sword. Machinos was in front, with Buzz following shortly after him.

Buzz was still feeling slightly cranky from last night, even though he was now sober, but he didn't want to disappoint Machinos and thus had readily agreed when one of the soldiers had arose him. Now he was beginning to have second thoughts, especially when they had been riding for hours and still hadn't arrived at the chosen drill scene yet. He wondered if this was even Machinos's true intention…

His further thoughts were abruptly halted by a rustling noise from a nearby patch of brush. Puzzled, he looked over toward that direction, only to see that the bush had stopped moving and was now completely still. Shaking his head, he decided that it was just a mind trick and turned back to follow Machinos again.

No sooner had he turned his head, however, than a gunshot rang out through the trees. The aim had intended to be at Buzz, but due to the fact that he was slightly shorter than the others it wasn't exactly true. The bullet narrowly missed hitting the feather stuck into the brim of his hat and instead struck one of the other Riders in the group behind him, causing him to emit a loud screech of pain, tense up, and fall off of his horse with a loud _THUD_. Machinos, having heard this noise before, whipped his head in that particular direction to find that the Rider had indeed fallen; several others were staring at him, wondering what there was that they could actually do.

Machinos then turned toward Buzz, who looked rather shocked from what had just happened and was now staring straight ahead, his eyes wide. Machinos snapped his fingers rather loudly, causing him to snap back to attention. "Who—uh—what is it, Sire?"

"Do you know who fired that shot?" the tyrant demanded, sounding rather vexed.

Buzz looked at him, then at the bush where he had first heard the noise, then finally sighed and pointed in the bush's direction. Machinos turned his gaze toward that, his eyes narrowed, his hands slowly reaching for the sword sheathed into his belt. Buzz was about to ask if there was a logical explanation for this, but before he could say anything the rustling came again.

"Damnation," was all Machinos muttered.


	8. The Ambush

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter VIII: The Ambush

__

You stand before me now we stare eye to eye  
Before another second clicks away one of us will die.  
You reach for your metal as I reach for mine  
The sound of bullets flyin' through the air, is followed by a cry  
And they're cryin'…

—3 Doors Down; "Dangerous Game"

The attackers had obviously given themselves away, but yet they still refused to show themselves. Machinos's eyes narrowed in disgust, then he turned to the Rider nearest him, who was still looking down at his half-dead comrade with a great sense of uneasiness. Still sounding rather angered, he snapped at the Rider, jabbing his finger in the direction of the bush, "Fire at that bush, soldier, and _don't miss_. I have a feeling that we've got some unwanted company with us."

The soldier nodded, then set his rifle in the fire position toward the bush and pulled the trigger with accuracy. There was a rather dull _FWIP _sound as the bullet struck its selected target, a few blood drops hit the bush's leaves, then a loud cry issued and from the bush came forth a group of about fifteen soldiers, clothed in chain-mail armor, their wild-looking hair tied back with leather bandannas. Although Buzz was not familiar with the area, he knew by their looks which cybersite they had come from.

"Pompadorians," Machinos growled, as he guided his horse a step or two backward. "They've still got a grudge against me for what I did to their older leader…" He turned his gaze in Buzz's direction. "General! It appears that we are under ambush, thus we must act upon it. Draw your sword, and whatever you must do, do not expose yourself."

Buzz looked at him, then reluctantly nodded and turned Macbeth around toward the other direction of the trees, drawing his sword as he did so. From behind him, he heard another shriek of pain as someone fell—he wasn't sure who, and he didn't want to know—and began to guide Macbeth over toward a rather large, fallen tree. As he halted her, then quickly jumped down into the tangle of branches, he heard the sound of footsteps issuing toward his direction.

Worried that it was one of the Pompadorian soldiers, he whimpered slightly and tried to hide himself, but it was proven to be in vain; the creature had already noticed him. Thankfully, however, it was not one of the Pompadorians; nor was it his horse. Instead it was Revel, who had loyally followed him and was now standing directly in front of the branches. Sighing in relief, Buzz immediately shot up, grabbed him by the front of his shirt collar, then tugged him down into the branches with him before the soldier could protest.

"Hey!" Revel exclaimed as he was scratched in several places by the branches' edges, then thrown onto the grass underneath. "What do you think you're—"

Buzz clapped his hand over his mouth. "Shh!" he hissed, then cautiously looked through the tangle of wood at the scene in front of them. It wasn't exactly a pretty sight so far—about three of the Pompadorian soldiers were lying on the ground, either dead or badly injured; the Dark Rider soldiers had scattered and were shooting from random areas, and Machinos didn't seem fazed at all. If a soldier came too close, he unsheathed his sword and hacked at it; usually the aim was true. Several of the soldiers had been disarmed—literally.

"We're winning by 'da looks of it, but even so 'dis doesn't look good for us," Buzz told Revel, releasing his hand from the soldier's mouth. "If we don't want 'da death count to be at its highest—Heaven forbid—we have to find some way to kill off 'da soldiers without risking 'da lives of 'da other ones."

"But how do we do that?" Revel asked, looking ahead at the scene before them. "I mean, we can't get very close without them trying to—_URRK_!"

"What?" Buzz asked, looking around. "What is—"

He didn't need to say nor ask anything more, for he found what had caused Revel's brief moment of shock: a few of the Pompadorian soldiers had spotted them and were now heading in their direction, their guns loaded and currently over their soldiers. Buzz knew that they wouldn't be for long, however, and thus tried to decipher a way on how they could get away with this without suffering any severe injuries.

The soldiers seemed to sense their fear, however; as soon as they had seen the two cringe back they broke into a run in their direction. Buzz, slightly panicked, looked around desperately, then his gaze fell upon Revel's musket, which was currently slung across his back. Looking back at the soldiers, he grabbed Revel by the shoulder, causing him to take his concentration off the soldiers and onto him.

"What?" Revel asked, his tone still slightly shaky.

"Revel, I need you to do something. Arm yourself before you do anything else."

Revel looked at him, unsure of what he was getting at, then finally nodded and unhitched the strap that connected the musket to his back. Lowering it carefully—it was still loaded, and thus proved rather dangerous—he stood it up on its end and said, looking at Buzz, "Now what?"

Buzz grinned rather cockily. "I think 'dat you know what I want yas to do," he replied, pointing out at the soldiers advancing on them. Revel looked at him, then grinned, nodded, and carefully aimed the rifle at the nearest soldier. Buzz, who slowly stepped backward beside him, added, "Remember to aim low. I think 'dat if you hit 'em in the kneecaps it'll disable their ability to walk."

"Gotcha," Revel replied, then he aimed for the lower body and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out through the air, and the aim was indeed proven to be true: the soldier in front was struck directly in the kneecap; there was a loud _CRROCCCKK_ sound as the bone was shattered. The soldier let out a cry of pain before crumpling to the ground in a heap; Buzz smiled despite the anxiety he was currently feeling.

"Now it's my turn," he muttered with an air of confidence; he then leapt out from the tangle of branches, unsheathed his sword, then immediately leapt on the fallen soldier and mercilessly began to gore it into splattered carnage. The other two soldiers were shocked, and stepped backward a bit, but quickly recovered and charged toward him. Buzz stopped abruptly, then looked up in their direction.

"Assassin!" the first soldier screeched; he then swatted the robot away from his gored comrade, causing him to land awkwardly on the ground a few yards away. Feeling an intense pain spread through his head, he curiously touched the spot near his left antenna, then withdrew it. What he saw was less than pleasant.

_Oh great_, he thought to himself, _I've begun to bleed_. Looking up at the two soldiers who were advancing on him, he growled angrily and tried to get to his feet, but before he could center his balance the two were upon him. The first soldier easily managed to snatch him off the ground, while the second unsheathed his sword and held it up to the robot's gaze. The first soldier then forced him into a position that exposed the area where his jugular vein normally would've been in anatomy terms.

The second soldier grinned coldly, then slowly raised the sword up and prepared to plunge it down into Buzz. The robot struggled, but it proved hopeless; these creatures were apparently more stronger—not to mention much taller and much heavier—than he was. Despite the fact that he was tensed in every part of his body, he refused to show fear, and instead smiled weakly, glaring at the two. "Funny, I thought Pompadorians usually did much more creative deaths 'dan 'dis."

"Shut it, bastard," the first soldier hissed, further tightening his grip on Buzz's wrists. The robot winced; at that moment he would've given anything to be back within the Wreaker. Hacker was harsh, but not as harsh as these two…then again, he had never exactly used weapons upon them either…

Blood from his cut was beginning to trickle down into his left eye, creating a temporary curtain of red that somewhat blinded his vision. He could sense that the second soldier was preparing to plunge the sword into the place where the chest _would_ supposedly be…burst open his jugular vein, make much more blood trickle down…the curtain of blood…the lake of blood…their unending fury…

Cowardice was not acceptable in these terms, however. Though he wanted more than ever to plead for mercy, his pride and ego refrained him from doing so. Instead he shut his left eye, preventing the further flow of blood into it, then waited for the chance when the soldier would finally let it be over with…

_He's taunting me_, the robot finally realized angrily. _He's just waiting for me to show fear before he kills me. Fearful death is always more painful…I think they know that…oh, God, just please let me go! Get it over with!_

It was then that he heard the miraculous cry of "Put him _DOWN_!", then the sound of musket fire. The second soldier made a slight choking noise; although Buzz was currently half-blinded he could see him fall to the ground. The first soldier looked up in the area where the sound had issued, and for a split second Buzz saw Revel, before the robot finally took off to the left.

The soldier growled. "Coward," he muttered; Buzz then heard the sound of metal sliding against metal as the first soldier removed his own sword. "Now, then, I believe that I was about to—"

He was halted mid-sentence by another source slicing through his vocal cords, snapping them from the inside, along with his windpipe. Gasping, blood beginning to cascade from the slit in his neck and down upon the robot's head, he let go of Buzz at once and brought both hands to the wound, screaming in pain. The wielder of the second sword immediately put him out of his misery, however, by finishing the job: he severed the soldier's head clear from his shoulders.

Buzz landed on the ground, almost landing on the sharper point of his sword, then gasped a few times, wiped the blood out of his eyes, and looked up. Again, there was Revel, standing there in an almost godly posture—at least to him, anyway. Clutched in one of his balled fists was a bloodstained sword; he confirmed his theory.

"Revel!" he exclaimed, but the pain in his head prevented him from saying anything for a few more moments. "Where—where were you?"

"I had to take some time to reload my musket," Revel sighed, sheathing his sword. "I'm sorry…"

"'Da only time you have to say you're sorry is if I actually die," Buzz responded, trying to get to his feet yet again. However, once again the cut prevented this; he slumped back down onto the ground, emitting a pained noise upon doing so. Revel looked at him, almost worriedly, he then walked over and gently picked him up.

"That cut looks pretty bad, sir," he informed him, fingering the bloody gash for a few seconds' time. "I think that we need to lay off the fighting and get you some medical help at once before we try anything else."

"No—way," Buzz gasped, pulling himself out of Revel's grasp and awkwardly landing on the ground again. "I'm 'da General, and it's my job to win 'dis. I'm not going to quit just because of some—bloody—" He gasped again and fell against a nearby tree for aid in support.

"I beg you to reconsider," Revel told him. "This is a gangrene positive area, sir. And even so, you'll probably drop after a few minutes' time either way. Robotic blood cannot scab over. If you keep this up all the blood in your body will pour out through that gash."

"Well, 'dat's a risk I'm willing to take," he said, although his voice had become weaker. "'Dere are still quite a few soldiers left in 'dis area. I ain't stopping 'dis until every one of 'em are taken down."

"Please, sir!" Revel objected, in an almost pleading tone, his hands clasped together nervously. "Let Machinos take care of the other soldiers—he's already got some of them on the run. We've killed three, and that's a well-enough death count for two individuals. Please…" He let his hands drop to his sides. "Just take my advice…"

Buzz was almost about to agree with Revel, and had just opened his mouth to answer when there was yet another loud screeching sound from further down in the woods. Startled, both robots turned to look in that direction as the bleeding body of a Dark Rider fell from a nearby tree—apparently it had been shot in the chest area—and land on another Rider below it, causing them both to fall. The two then watched in horror as a pair of Pompadorian soldiers immediately rushed up to them, then raised their swords and speared them both through the chest, in one blow. Buzz felt rather nauseated, not to mention rather faint, at the sight of this, but he knew that he had to keep himself together in a situation like this. He shook his head.

"No, Revel," he said firmly. "We can't let 'dem get away with 'dis. I'm going to stay here for 'da time being until every last one of 'dem is taken down." He staggered over toward Macbeth, who was now nervously pawing the air due to the shouts and gunshots ringing out around them. Awkwardly mounting her, he slumped forward on the horse, then looked down at Revel and said, his voice now a faint whisper, "Just go and kill 'em. Kill 'em all. I'll try and sight out 'da leader…" He shuddered for a split second before finally hoisting himself up as so to get Macbeth going.

Revel knew that it was hopeless to argue with him, even though he knew that his health was gradually declining by the moment. "Okay, sir," he reluctantly agreed, nodding. "I'll try and see what I can do."

"'Atta boy," Buzz muttered, then waited for Revel to leave before finally allowing Macbeth to move in a rather quick trot across the area. His vision had blurred, and he couldn't tell the friend from the enemy; thus, when a soldier fell, he took no notice. He was beginning to take no notice of everything, now; besides his vision his other senses were beginning to rapidly slow down. He was starting to think that Revel was right, when he finally looked up and saw the blurred form of another soldier.

He couldn't tell if it was a Pompadorian or a Dark Rider, but it was standing in a confident air, it wasn't on a horse, and it appeared to be barking commands at some other, unseen soldiers. Blindly declaring that this was the leader of the ambush, Buzz forced himself up further and reached down toward his side as so to draw his sword—

And every last bit of strength he had left immediately went out of him. Unable to keep his balance any further, he slipped off the horse, landing hard on the ground below him. He could hear the vibrations of Macbeth's footsteps as she galloped off…he could hear the shouts and cries of the soldiers around him…he wanted to do something, but it was too late…

It was too late…

"_Suh_!" he heard someone yell; then everything went entirely black.

"_That takes care of most of them…I congratulate the remainder of you on your assistance_."

"_Thank you kindly, suh, but I doubt that it was actually worth it._"

Buzz groaned, then groggily opened one eye at the scene before him. He found himself in the arms of a rather tall Dark Rider soldier; the cut on his forehead had been blocked and his blood was beginning to slowly, but surely, renew itself from what little he had left. Curious of what this conversation was about, he looked over in the direction that the soldier was looking in, and saw, sure enough, Machinos, along with Revel, who was currently looking rather nervous. The Pompadorian soldiers were gone; he guessed that the majority of them had been slaughtered, while the others had run for it while they still had the chance.

"What do you mean, you doubt that it was actually worth it? We drove the soldiers out, and for now that's all that matters to me." Machinos crossed his arms and glared coldly at the opposing soldier.

"I'm referring to the death count, suh."

"Of course," Machinos sighed. "During this past flurry of events it must've slipped my mind. How many dead?"

"Seven dead, suh, and two badly injured. We were outnumbuhed up to the point where you finally decided to take down their leaduh."

"Seven dead…" Machinos looked off to the side and spat into the bloodstained dirt. "Blast it. That was more than half of my new recruits…" He sighed and looked back at the soldier. "You do realize that this is serious, am I correct?"

"Yes, suh." The soldier nodded, then shifted Buzz's weight to one arm. "I was sure that you took care of the Pompadorian Empire eons ago. I don't see why they'd suddenly turn on you like that, suh."

"They're stubborn, that's the reason," Machinos replied, rather coldly. "You know very well how Pompadorian citizens are. They want complete control over everything, by themselves only. Apparently they don't exactly enjoy being ruled over by one of my rank."

"You know, if they've planned something like this, I'll bet you anything that they're going to keep at it until they get what they want," Revel piped up. "How are we going to handle this? If they killed more than half of our entire party on the first try—"

"It won't happen again, Revel," Machinos said icily, glaring at him. "And I'll make sure that it never will." He turned toward Brutus, who was standing behind him loyally, nosing along the ground for grass that didn't have the iron-like taste of fresh blood. "The only way to take care of an empire is to fight for it, which is exactly what we shall be doing. The remainder of that Pompadorian group came from overseas, no doubt; that's where Pompadoria is located to my knowledge. I shall make plans for further battle tonight."

"Wouldn't that be a bit unexpected, Sire?" Revel asked, as Machinos mounted his horse.

"That's exactly what I want it to be," Machinos responded, looking down at Revel, his expression unreadable. "If they want a fight, we're going to give it to them head-on, face to face, metal to metal. And I'm quite positive that once we're finished with them, they shall rue the day they _ever_ decided to turn against Lord Machinos."

He then turned Brutus around to the point where he could face the other soldier, the one currently holding Buzz. "You shall ride the General's horse home, soldier. I don't want him to tally up on the death count numbers. Thus, once you get back, I want you to give him medical attention _at once_. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, suh," the soldier responded, nodding.

"Good," was all Machinos responded, he then snapped Brutus' reins and sent them galloping off toward the direction of the windmill. The soldier sighed as he left, then looked over at Revel, who was now looking at him, rather nervously.

"We'd best be heading back, then," Revel told him, rather sheepishly.

"Yes," the other soldier replied; he then walked over toward Macbeth, who appeared to be fine for the most part, thank goodness. Buzz sighed, then, deciding that it was best not to know anything else too soon, closed his eye and allowed a peaceful state of mind to overtake him yet again.

"This thing just has no give!" Jacqueline snarled as she rammed her shoulder against the metal door of the Grim Wreaker again, provoking a rather loud vibrating sound before drawing back again. "Why isn't it opening? It should've broken down on the first try…"

"See why we use our minds for situations like these?" Inez sighed, getting up from her spot behind a nearby pile of boxes. "The Grim Wreaker is steel, Jacqueline. You can't get it open with your bare hands. You either need to trust us on this one, or you need to have the proper tools for the job."

"Fine, then," Jacqueline replied, backing away from the door and crossing her arms. "Let's see just how well _you_ can do it, then." She sniggered. "What are you going to do? Use your algebra knowledge to break down the door? I doubt it."

Inez growled, then walked over toward the control panel on the side of the Wreaker door and, without hesitation, pressed in a few code numbers. She waited patiently for a few moments, then the doors creaked and finally slid open, exposing the main control room to the kids and their alternates. Inez smirked at Jacqueline, who was now glaring at the doorway angrily.

"Which is stronger now?" she teased.

"You'd better watch it, girl," Jacqueline threatened, pointing at her. "I can take you down in a heartbeat."

"Alright, that's enough," Matthew told her firmly, walking up the platform as so to enter the door. He turned to look at Inez. "Never mind her, she's just in a bad mood right now. It's been happening a lot; we just made it a common part of our everyday life. I think that while you're here, you should, too."

"Very well," Inez sighed reluctantly, nodding her head.

"Good, I'm glad you understand," Matthew replied, smiling; he then walked through the doorway and looked around. "Wow, this place is pretty high-tech. You can easily tell that this guy is the villain around these parts, eh?"

"Yeah, that's one way of looking at it," Jackie replied, walking through the doorway after him. She then glanced around. "Sheesh, is this place a mess or what! I always thought that Hacker was much more organized than this."

"I did, too," Inez agreed, looking at the contents strewn about the floor around her. "This place was always so…clean when we came into it. Now it looks like…well, it looks like…"

"Like a tornado went through it?" Matt suggested.

"Yeah, I suppose that's one way of looking at it…" Something suddenly snapped into her mind. "Wait, Matt…this does indeed look like a tornado went through it…or maybe it was something else. Maybe it really looks like a _portal_ went through it."

Matt looked confused for a few moments, as did those around him. "What do you mean by that, Nezzie?" he asked. Inez glared at him warningly; Matt caught the message. "Whoops…I mean, Inez?"

"What I mean is that…well, did you notice that while Hacker may be gone, Buzz and Delete aren't here? He usually leaves them alone in the Wreaker on certain occasions."

"Yeah…" Matt looked around. "Heh, maybe they were the ones that made this mess!"

"I'm serious on this, Matt," Inez told him, crossing her arms. "No jokes this time, I mean it." She shook her head. "Anyway, what I mean to say is that, maybe the portal didn't appear by accident. Maybe our alternates weren't pulled into here by accident. Maybe they were led in here on purpose…by a certain individual who currently isn't here at the moment." She looked around, almost vexed at the sight of this.

"Oh, I get you…" Zeny looked thoughtful. "So, what your theory is, is that this Hacker guy somehow managed to find a way to open up the Portal of Forty, then it sucked us in, spit us back out back here, and they got vice versa?"

"Yes," Inez said. "But what I'm wondering is, _how_."

The kids thought about this for a moment, then Digit finally sighed and shook his head. "I'm stumped," he muttered. "I just don't see how there's any possible way to open up a portal that powerful just by force."

"So am I," Jackie agreed. "I mean, we've had experiences with the Portal of Forty, and we know that it's large and powerful, so how can it be restrained by human force?"

"We may need to know more than this…" Inez looked around, then another idea came to her head. "Look, remember that time we went in here to get that box of wig gel for the antidote?" She asked Jackie, Matt, and Digit. "And that time we went inside to get at the Crystal of Kalmoor?"

"Yeah…" Jackie and Matt slowly nodded their heads.

"Well, usually there'd be some type of connection as to how we could figure this out. If Hacker has opened the Portal of Forty, there has to be a logical explanation as to why this happened, and why no one is here."

"So, what should we do?" Digit asked, shrugging his shoulders.

"We've got to find a connection before we do anything else." Inez smiled, then began to head over toward the nearest hallway. "Start searching, you guys."


	9. Overseas

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter IX: Overseas

Matt decided that if he was going to start anywhere, he wanted to find a reliable source. While Inez went toward the supply closet, and Jackie began searching through the scattered items on the floor, he instead went down the hallway and walked down, his hands behind his back, looking around him for any sign of something that may have proven as suspicious. When he found nothing, he sighed and was about to go back to the main control room and report to the others…

That was before he caught sight of the study room door. Having not seen this room before, being the curious soul that he was, he slowly walked over and cautiously looked inside (the door had been left ajar, so this was a seemingly simple thing to do). When he found that Hacker, nor Buzz and Delete, were not in here, he sighed in relief and walked in.

The room was neater than the main control room, but it still had that familiar feeling of desertion around it. Matt approached the Hacker's chair, looking around for any more traces or signs, but the most that he found around the coffee table was a stuffed dog—the boy guessed that it must've been Delete's (wherever he was now). Tossing the stuffed toy over his shoulder, he got down on his hands and knees and crawled behind the chair. He found nothing behind there, either.

Frustrated, he was just about to give up when he hit against the table, causing a book to fall off and strike him on the head, then land on the floor, provoking a light cloud of dust. Shocked, he yelped in pain and, rubbing his head, looked down at what had hit him. Growling, he picked up the book and was about to toss it to the side when he noticed the title:

_Ancient Connections to the Wonders of Cyberspace_.

Now that his interest was caught, he decided that he might as well open the book, seeing that it wasn't on the shelf—heck, if it hadn't been in its proper place it should hold some kind of information, if not the type he needed. Thumbing through the book, he immediately skipped most of the passages and went to the back, where, sure enough, he found a rather large appendix. Skipping through the letters, he found the sections listed under the letter "P" and began to run his finger down the worn and dusty page, searching.

"Portal…portal…" the redhead muttered, then his finger finally stopped on the word _PORTALS_. Listed below it, much to his surprise, was a large list of connections tied in with portals, and what page they fell on. Grunting impatiently, the boy searched through the list until he came across, sure enough, what he had been looking for:

_PORTAL OF FORTY, THE_; p. 231.

Quickly turning to page 231, he skimmed through the words and, sure enough, found what he needed to know. A determined gaze now on his face, he slammed the book closed, then tucked it under his arm and ran out of the study, back toward the main control room. The girls and Digit, along with their alternates, were still searching through the debris when Matt entered.

"Guys!" he called to them, running up to the table, the book still under his arm. "You can stop searching now. I think I've found what we needed to know."

The kids stopped what they were doing and walked up to the table, as Matt dropped the book on top of it and quickly turned to the page that he had found the information on. He then pointed at the passage and said, looking at Inez, "Inez, I need you to read this. I think that you may be able to decipher as to why no one's here if you do the correct research."

Inez looked back at him, then adjusted her glasses and looked down at the book's print for a few moments, her eyes quickly darting across the page. After a few minutes (the girl was apparently a speed-reader) she straightened herself back up, then said, crossing her arms, "You're right, Matt. This _is_ a very reliable source."

"So, what can you make of it?" Matt asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The most I can say for the time being is that the Portal of Forty can be opened with the aid of a powerful spiritual force." She shook her head and placed her chin in her hand. "But I just can't think of where Hacker might've gone for that source…"

Digit was in a blank for a few moments as well, but, being one who was familiar with everyone and everything in cyberspace, the theory immediately snapped into his head. Jumping up on the table, he announced, "I've got it! Globus Jayon is the one we need to find…uh…" he looked around at the others, who were giving him odd looks. "Because, I know that she's a spiritual connector. She used to be a fortuneteller back in R-Fair City when I was younger…"

"Great, Didge!" Matt exclaimed. "You know where she is now?"

"Um…uh…I don't exactly know," Digit replied, shrugging. "All I know is that she's not in R-Fair City. She left there eons ago to go someplace more…private, let me say."

"Great," Jacqueline scoffed, crossing her arms. "A great lot of help _that _does us."

"Well, I thought that I heard some rumor about that she moved to cybersite Nowhere a few years back, but I'm not exactly sure about that…" He shook his head, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Well, we've got to start somewhere," Jackie replied. "Let's just go to cybersite Nowhere and see what they know. If the fortuneteller isn't there, we'll try and get some information out of the other civilians. I'm sure that they've been around long enough to remember what happened to her."

"Good idea, Jacks," Matt replied. "Although that sounds like something I'd say…"

"What can I say, you rub off on me," Jackie replied, shrugging a shoulder as she began to head toward the door; Matt wasn't sure if he should've taken that as a sarcastic remark or not. Then again…maybe…he swallowed hard, then began to run for the door after her, the others closely following.

Buzz lay on the bed in the General's quarters, staring up at the high ceiling. From outside, he could hear several cheers and calls; he wondered what they were doing to arouse such uproar. Then again, perhaps he didn't need to know…he had overheard their conversation in the forest earlier about wanting to fight the Pompadorians, and retake over their site. Machinos had apparently gathered Delete and the rest of the remaining soldiers in the army together and was now persuading them to fight with him and for him.

He had been excused from the announcement due to his head wound, however, and maybe that was just as well. He really didn't want to know what the tyrant was shouting to them out there—and he didn't want to hear their responses to this either. Heck, now that he thought about it, he didn't even want them to attack Pompadoria in the first place. Sure, the Pompadorians had been merciless fighters, and may have very well killed him if the tall soldier hadn't of picked him up (not to mention stop the bleeding). But, they were also civilians, and they were only fighting as so to take back what had been rightfully theirs before. He didn't know what to think, even though he knew that choosing neutral would probably end up in death if anyone found out.

He heard another round of cheers from outside, and now it seemed to sicken him for one reason or another. Sure, he liked the soldiers—preferably Revel, who always seemed to agree with him for any reason—and he liked the fact that he and Delete were finally getting some respect…but most of all, and he felt a secret shame for this, he loved the _power_. He was a creature of pride, and had always wanted to be one of powerful rank, like he was now, but Hacker had always driven him down. He was forever stuck in neutral—he was tougher than Delete, but more recessive than Hacker. Well, now he was all power—he was the General, head of the army, an equal to the tyrant Machinos. He didn't want to give this all up that fast.

_So why not attack Pompadoria_? He thought to himself, as he stared up at the ceiling again, swinging one leg over the other.

The other voice that had nagged at him when he was given Machinos's test then returned. _Because it's wrong. Machinos is evil, and you know it. By attacking Pompadoria you're only supporting that line of evil._

Buzz was silent in return. 

__

You want the power, you say? You love the power, you sinful creature? Well, it's not worth the power. You'll be killing, murdering, slaughtering…some of those soldiers had done nothing to you. You don't even know them well enough.

What's that got to do with anything?

What I mean is, you're attacking them just for your own ego; just for your own pleasure. Your want for power will eventually be the downfall of you, you know. You're just ignoring this fact and feeding off of Machinos's dictatorship.

No, I'm not. I'm an equal to Machinos. You know that just as damned well as I do.

You're anything but_ an equal to that tyrant. Machinos is pure evil, and you know that. Ruben Felinus trusted you upon fulfilling this task for him, and now look what you're doing…you're becoming a leech of power. As long as power is involved, for all I know, you'll remain here and remain treated like a piece of property for all your remaining days._

Property?

Yes, property. That's all you are to Machinos. Property. You're of no more importance to him than that chair in the corner, or that painting on the wall. He wanted a new General, and you came along. He accepted you without hesitation, just because you were trustworthy. And for what, now?

No…you're lying…

And you're denying the truth, my friend. There will come a day when you fail to heed my words, and eventually it will cause you your death. I'm not responsible for that. I'm—

"Buzz?"

The voice shattered the second that his name was said. Still slightly panicked by what he had just heard, he looked over toward the doorway, in time to see Delete, standing there with his hands folded in front of him. He looked rather concerned, Buzz didn't know if it was for two reasons or for one.

"Oh, it's only you," he sighed, looking back up at the ceiling with a great sense of relief. "What do you want, Deeds?"

"Well…you looked rather nervous for a few moments when I came in. Is something wrong?"

__

How like him to care about the thoughts of others, Buzz scoffed; he then said, "No, Deeds. I'm just…well, 'da cut on my head is starting to get to me, now. I dunno if 'da bleeding has stopped or not…" He knew that this was a stupid excuse; the soldier who had brought him in had given attention to the cut at once, just as Machinos had commanded. It had been stitched to prevent further bleeding, then bandaged; thus, there was no way the cut could reappear unless someone made it.

Delete didn't care, however. "Oh…" He looked down toward the floor. "Buzz, Machinos just made an announcement to the soldiers out there. He said that we were goin' overseas or somethin' like that to fight the Pompadorians. Do you have any idea what this is about?"

Buzz looked a bit surprised. "Didn't he tell you?"

"No, he didn't."

Buzz sighed, then replied, sitting upright, "You see, DeeDee, we were kind of…attacked during today's practice drill in 'da forest. A group of Pompadorian soldiers attacked us…'dey killed seven of 'da party and injured two, myself included. We managed to drive 'dem off, but it wasn't good enough for Machinos. He wants to fight 'dem because he thinks 'dat 'dey're trying to take control of what's theirs again."

Delete whimpered softly. "They killed seven?"

"Yeah, but let me tell yas, it's going to be nothing compared to what we're going to see during 'da battle itself. Hundreds, maybe thousands if 'da army is big enough—'dey'll all be killed, and all we can do is aid Machinos in doing so."

Delete shook his head in disbelief, his voice sounding frightened and broken. "But I don't wanna do that!"

"You won't have much choice, bro. I'm sorry," Buzz replied, looking over toward the other side of the room. He didn't want to tell his younger brother that he actually wanted to gain power over more civilians…more specifically, he wanted to attack Pompadoria, maybe get a few up into the death count. This was shameful, he knew, but he couldn't help but think it.

"Isn't there any other way?" Buzz really didn't like Delete's voice tone now. It was whiny and sounded very much like he was about to break into tears at moment's notice. The stouter robot shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. Unless you want to get killed yourself, 'dat is."

"Oh…" Delete looked down at the floor for a few more moments. "Which reminds me, I forgot to tell you what Machinos added in his speech. 'Member what I said about him sayin' that we were goin' overseas?"

"Yes…"

"Well, he said that we were leaving earlier tomorrow mornin'. The ships are quite a few miles away from here; he's got them near the riverbed…said it leads into the sea after a few hours of sailing, or something or another…"

"Oh, great…" Buzz stared up at the ceiling again. With this arrangement, he knew that he was going to have very little time to think this over. The Pompadorians were to be unexpectedly attacked afterward, and he couldn't do anything about it…what else could he do, rather than fight? He was the new general, after all. Besides, after what he had seen of Machinos it wouldn't exactly be the wisest decision to make him angry.

"Buzz?"

"Hmm?"

"You've been awfully quiet lately…this isn't like you at all. Is something wrong?"

"No, DeeDee, not at all. Take to mind 'dat I was recently cut on 'da forehead. I need time to recover, and, well…I also need time to think. I've never done anything like 'dis before; 'da boss usually doesn't go with 'da weaponry way."

"Okay…" The robot then emitted another small whimper. "I miss the Wreaker…"

"So do I, Deeds, but right now we have to focus on 'dis world," Buzz replied. "Now, I just want yas to leave and try to talk to someone else, so I can try to sort 'dis out. I really need some time by myself right now, okay?"

Delete, the look of sadness still on his face, nodded, then turned around and left down the hallway. Buzz sighed, then sprawled himself out on his back and looked over at the painting of the original general, Praefectus Bombilare, hung over the room's fireplace. Although it was only oil on canvas, the painting bore an expression of pride, the feeling Buzz had wanted for years. Hacker had never been pleased with anything he had done, thus he could never feel it for real. He was useless back in cyberspace. Here…well, he had power.

"What would you have done?" he muttered to the painting, which apparently bore no response.

Buzz was abruptly, not to mention rudely, awoken by Revel the next morning. Revel had tried countless times to get him up the old-fashioned way, but when his results had proven to be unsuccessful he had apparently lost his patience with him. Whether he was general or not, Revel had grabbed the edges of the blankets and had pulled, sending Buzz spiraling around several times before eventually falling off the bed, his lower body still tangled in the sheets.

At first he was greatly shocked, but when he noticed Revel looking over the edge of the bed he sighed. "Revel, tell me again why you got me up like 'dat?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but you just wouldn't wake up," he responded, sighing. He then tugged on the blankets, as so to untangle Buzz. "Anyway, you'd best get up while you still can. Machinos sent a few of his soldiers out last night to ready the ships for today's journey, and now they're back. He wants the soldiers to arrive at the main loading dock before dawn."

"Before dawn?!" Buzz was shocked for a moment. "Are you meaning to tell me 'dat it's not even light out yet?"

"Yes, sir," Revel responded, walking over to the other side of the bed and helping him to his feet. "Early rise is a common procedure around these parts. I suspected that you'd be used to it by now."

"Well, it's not exactly common around where I came from," Buzz muttered, reaching over near the fireplace for his sword. "And I'm not in 'da mood. I was up half 'da night thinking…about things."

Revel smiled, apparently curious. "Things like what?"

Buzz sighed. "Oh, just…what we're planning to do," he replied, shrugging a shoulder as he sheathed his sword. "I'm not exactly a war veteran. I may have been able to take place in an ambush, but seriously, a true-to-life _battle_…"

"It's always like that for the new recruits at first," Revel responded, crossing his arms. "But you'll get used to it soon enough." He then turned around and began heading for the doorway. "C'mon, we'd best get moving before Machinos suspects more of us."

Buzz weakly smiled and began to head toward the doorway after Revel. Although the soldier certainly seemed trustworthy enough, he didn't exactly feel like telling him what he had been thinking last night, exactly. It was a moral dilemma and at the same time rather depressing. Did Machinos truly think he was a piece of property, nothing else? And if he ever decided to come back, as Ruben had suggested, would he still remain a Loyalist to the Machinos army or a Patriot to the remainder of cyberspace…?

One thing was for sure, he had to make a decision, as he knew that he couldn't remain entirely neutral…

"And remember, Jenhoussen, I expect you to keep the grounds entirely locked and protected while I'm gone," Machinos said firmly to the rough-looking creature standing in front of him. "God knows exactly how many soldiers they sent out here to ambush us, and they'll probably suspect it to be like me to leave the grounds deserted. Well, it's not about to happen, my comrade." His eyes narrowed further. "Do I make myself clear on that one?"

Jenhoussen merely grunted, then nodded and turned around. Machinos sighed and shook his head, then turned in the opposite direction and began to walk up the gangplank of the _Bloodlust_, a rather large and exquisite 1800s ship that he was captain of and undoubtedly took pride in. Upon first glance Buzz and Delete could clearly see why: the ship was one of the largest and most organized ones they'd seen in a long time during their travels in cyberspace. Then again, the only thing that they had come close to seeing of an old-world ship was Ivanka the Invincible's decayed pirate ship, so that somewhat made sense…

The _Bloodlust_ wasn't the only ship on the private loading dock, however. Along the coastline were a total of three other, smaller ships, bearing the names the _Infernal_, the _Unpeaceful_, and the _Misery_. Buzz didn't exactly think that these were the more happier names for ships, but then again, Machinos wasn't exactly a joyous person, either. The _Misery_, the _Infernal_, and the _Unpeaceful_ were for the remaining recruits, while the _Bloodlust_ was for the higher ranks only. Apparently, this meant that Buzz, Delete, and Machinos would board the lead ship for the overseas journey.

Delete and Buzz, carrying nothing with them but their weaponry, slowly and steadily walked up the gangplank, curiously looking around at their surroundings. They had never seen a real loading dock before; the closest they had ever come to seeing one was at R-Fair City, and even then they never had time to take in the sights. This one, however, was much different. It was entirely deserted, for one thing, and it was in an older style—considering the fact that this entire world was probably set somewhere in the mid-1800s. It briefly reminded the two of the loading docks in the old gangster movies that they had seen in their earlier days.

When the boards of the gangplank turned to the boards of the _Bloodlust_'s floor, the two abruptly stopped walking, then turned around and looked down at the scenery below them for some more time. Several more soldiers—Delete and Buzz recognized one of them as Revel—came onto the ship before Machinos finally barked a command at several of the other soldiers to raise the anchor.

The two robots heard an incredibly loud _CHIINNNKKK_ sound as the anchor was raised from the side of the ship, then the sails abruptly fell and the _Bloodlust_ was slowly taken from the dock. It was a windy morning—especially for a day in mid-August—and thus it took very little time for the ship to leave the loading dock behind entirely. Looking up, Delete could see the other three ships closely following behind.

For a moments' time, he could only stare at them, hypnotized by their beauty, despite the fact that he knew very well that they were pure evil. His elbows placed on the rail and his head in his hands, he gazed dreamily out into the sparkling waters, wondering in truth what may lie ahead for him…other than the fighting, of course.

After a few moments' time he felt a hand on his shoulder. "It's lovely, isn't it?"

Delete craned his neck to see behind him, to find that it was Revel, yet again. He smiled; he was beginning to really enjoy the soldier's company in the time that he'd been here. "Yeah, it is. It would be even better if we weren't about to go out and fight someone…"

"Yeah, but, we can't really do anything about it," Revel responded, walking over next to him and leaning forward against the edge. "This entire thing _was_ Machinos's idea, after all. And it's come right down to the part where what Machinos wants, Machinos gets. There's really no stopping him once his mind's made up."

"I know, I know," Delete sighed, looking down at the water yet again. For a few moments both robots were silent, then Delete suddenly froze, for Revel's hand had moved over to his left hip; he had now wrapped his fingers tightly around it. Feeling uneasy at this gesture, Delete quickly tore away, then said, staring at him, "What was that all about?"

"Hmm?" Revel suddenly realized, then quickly responded, "Oh, I'm sorry about that. I just saw something on your side…I wanted to make sure that it wasn't anything serious."

"Oh…that?" Delete looked down at his side; he thought he had concealed that dark brown stain in his uniform with aid of the belt. "That's just from last night. I kinda stained it and I didn't want the boss—uh, I mean, Machinos to find out that I ruined his uniform."

"I see." Revel nodded. "I just thought that it was blood or something…"

"It isn't, trust me." He sheepishly tucked the stained area under his belt yet again, hints of a darker teal in his cheeks. For some reason, Revel made him uncomfortable. He didn't know why, exactly; Revel indeed was nice to him, but that gesture…he suspected something other than just checking for blood. It made him wonder…was he really a nice guy, or did he really want to find out more about him in order to report his further plans to Machinos…?

Revel seemed to notice that he was suspicious, for he immediately left the rail and walked over down the platform toward the captain's quarters. Delete sighed as he left, then looked back out at the waters again. There really was nothing that he could do…except try and get to know most of the other soldiers, but then again, who would communicate casually with the head of the militia? Not the lower ranks, that was for sure.

Buzz, in the meantime, had decided to get a better view of the seascape and had attempted to make his way up the mast, as so to get a better view from the area where the sails were connected. His first few attempts were unsuccessful, but with help of the net and his sword he managed to pull himself up onto the lower part of the sail. Relaxing, and at the same time telling himself not to look down, he looked out at the water before him, and, like Delete, was hypnotized for a few moments. The only time he had seen the dawn catch on the water like this was in nature specials or paintings—never in real life. He tallied this up as another thing that made this dimension what it was.

__

Maybe this isn't the worst thing in the world, he thought to himself as he casually leaned against the mast, placing his hands behind his back. _For the time being, I don't think I should worry my pretty little head…or whatever. Besides, I was up half the night; I deserve more than just five hours of sleep…_

The setting was indeed peaceful (despite the name of the ship), and within a few moments he had drifted off into yet another peace of mind state. He didn't care about the battle. He didn't care about the ambush. And he certainly didn't care about that nasty voice in the back of his head…

Within a few hours, however, Delete was not feeling at all well. The saltiness of the air and the constant swaying motion of the ship had apparently gotten to him; he had paled and was now standing near the galley, one of his hands clapped over his mouth, making loud gagging sounds. He wanted more than anything to vomit, but he didn't want to do it now…not all over the floor…

Desperate, he quickly ran over to the edge of the ship, then bent down, stuck his head through the gaps, and allowed his innards to empty themselves of their contents. Everything he had eaten last night—which was, unfortunately, a lot for him—was brought up and lost to the water. This continued for quite a few precious moments before he finally gave one final gasp, then drew his head away, one hand to his throat, the other to the area between his chest and stomach.

Shakily getting to his feet, he staggered back over to the galley, then leaned against the door—just as it opened. The robot fell forward, nearly losing his balance in the process, then looked up in time to see, much to his surprise, Abigail standing there. She was currently wearing mesh gloves and had her head wrapped in a bandana, which Delete thought looked rather fitting for her.

"O-oh," Delete stammered, leaning against the side of the door, still feeling rather sick. "H-hi."

Abigail cocked her head. "You okay?" she asked, reaching out and feeling the area around his head. "You look kind of sick…"

"I-I r-recently th-threw up," Delete replied, still trying to get the nasty aftertaste of the vomit out of his mouth. "W-what are y-you doing here, A-Abigail?"

"Oh, I'm just the cook around these parts," she sighed, removing one of her gloves. "When it comes to things like these, usually a woman has to do the job…" She shook her head. "Sexists." She then drew her attention back to Delete. "You're probably just seasick, is all. Is this the first time you've been on a ship before?"

"A m-moving one, y-yes."

"Then that has to be it." She pondered for a moment. "Tell you what. Come in here and I'll get you some water. That might help to cool your senses a little bit before I can find an actual remedy for it…"

"O-okay."

Abigail smiled, then ushered him through the door, slamming it behind her. Delete looked around: the galley was a small, cramped area, and it stank dreadfully of rotting fish. The only source of light were a pair of kerosene lamps hanging in the back, over a rather bloody colored cutting table and several arrangements of knives. To the left was a stove; to the right a fireplace. The cat creature guided him to a stool, then set him down in it before hurrying over to the stove and taking a glass down from a varied arrangement overhead.

"So, I heard that you're going to fight the Pompadorians," she said casually, as she handed him the glass. "Figures that Machinos wouldn't settle with their one-on-one deal. He always tends to betray people like this…" Her gaze became cold as she turned off to the side. "I learned that from experience." Her gaze then softened and she continued, sitting on another stool across from him, "Anyway, I don't want to pressure you, so I'll just tell you not to worry about it."

"But Buzz said that when he was ambushed by the Pompadorian soldiers, they killed seven of the drill party. Seven of them were dead. An' then he said that there was gonna be a lot more blood than what he'd seen…I admit, I'm a bit scared…" He fidgeted in his seat and looked down nervously at the floor.

"Well, that bit was true, but you know that you're going to have to put up with these things in order for everything to fall together…according to plan, that is." She looked over toward the cutting table for a brief moment. "So, did you tell your brother about what we're planning on doing yet?"

Delete shook his head. "Uh-uh. I figured that he was too panicked from the ambush to want to know about it…I wanted to tell him, but he said that he needed some time alone…I don't blame him, but he's been so…so _quiet_, lately…"

"He's probably just as pressured as you are," Abigail responded, shaking her head. "I'm sure that once this thing blows over, you'll be able to break it to him better than what you were trying to do earlier. He just needs to unwind and get this over with, is all."

"But, what if we lose?" Delete asked worriedly. "The Pompadorians will probably chase us down…then they'll kill us…and then we won't even get to do what we were intending to do in the first place…it's scary, it's really scary…"

Abigail was silent for a few moments as she stared at him. Then she finally slowly shook her head, her expression becoming dead and solemn. Delete was wondering why this was; perhaps it was something he said, for she finally replied, in a voice that was rather cold, even for her:

"Machinos _never_ loses, dear."


	10. The Battle of Pompadoria

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter X: The Battle of Pompadoria

__

Can't you hear us coming?   
People marching all around  
Can't you see we're coming?   
Close your eyes it's over now  
Can't you hear us coming?   
The fight has only just begun  
Can't you see we're coming…?

—Creed, "Freedom Fighter"

As the first rays of moonshine fell upon the _Bloodlust_'s sails, Buzz was awakened by shouts below. Groggily opening one eye, for a moment wondering where in cyberspace he was, he shook his head to clear himself and, taking care not to lose his balance and drop to the floor, looked down below him. The ship's deck was coated in a dark shadow; the lamps that had been positioned near the ship's quarters hadn't even been lit. On the blackness he saw several of the soldiers running to and fro, yelling things that he couldn't exactly make out—it was as if they were shouting from the other side of the water.

He groaned and rubbed the side of his head, then looked over toward the mast just in time to see another soldier clinging to it; apparently Machinos or someone else had sent him up here to retrieve him. Buzz, still curious by what was going on, looked over at the soldier and began to slowly shimmy over toward the mast, as the soldier said, "Suh, we need you to come down heah. At once."

Buzz recognized that accented tone; it was clearly the same soldier who had picked him up at the ambush. "What's going on?" he asked, as he allowed the soldier to reach out and toss him onto his back.

"Pompadoria has been sighted, suh," the soldier replied, beginning to effortlessly climb back down the mast. "Machinos wants to anchor the ships in their loading dock, then attack from there. He said that if we get on land too soon, or put the ships near the dock, it'll be a giveaway."

"But…" Buzz took a brief glance out at the darkened strip of land in front of them before looking back at the soldier. "Doesn't anchoring in 'da loading dock place us farther out in 'da water 'dan we should be?"

"Yes, suh, but it's our only choice. If we go too close to the water, or so Machinos said, there's a bettah chance that we may be attacked befoah we can even make one move toward them."

"So, what are we going to do in order to get 'dere? Swim to shore?"

"Yes, suh." The soldier swiveled his head to one side as so to look at him. "You do know how to swim, right?"

"Not very well."

"That'll be a problem, then," the soldier replied, as he finally reached the floor of the deck and, plucking Buzz off of his shoulders, set him down onto the wood. "Unless you want to ride on someone's back, that is."

"I suppose 'dat's 'da only choice I have…other 'dan to just stay here and guard 'da ship while youse guys go out to fight."

"That's not an option, suh," the soldier replied, looking over at the darkened shape of Pompadoria, which was getting closer by the moment. "It's either fight or run, one of the two. Either way, you have a strong risk of getting killed in the process."

Buzz looked down at the dock and nodded, then looked back up at the soldier. "How much time do we have before we approach Pompadoria, do you think?"

"Judging by the speed we're going at, I'd say about fifteen minutes, suh." He looked down at Buzz and crossed his broad arms. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I just need some…time to think about 'dis, is all," Buzz replied, shrugging a shoulder. "Lately I've been thinking a lot about what exactly my purpose is here. It's kind of a deep, time-hogging process, if you know what I mean."

"What do you mean by that?" the soldier asked. "You know what your purpose is, suh. Your purpose is to serve and fight alongside Machinos, just like us soldiers do. Nothing else. When you're the general, everything seconds to fighting for your master."

Buzz was taken aback when he heard this, then fell into a stunned silence. Once again, the nagging doubt that had been in the back of his head surfaced, as fresh as it had ever been: _You're only a piece of property to Machinos. You're not an equal, and you never will be_. He shuddered at this, then looked back up at the soldier to make a response, only to find out that he had left.

As the soldier had predicted, the ship was anchored in the center of the loading dock's waters shortly after this. As the _Bloodlust_ bobbed silently in the waters, with the _Misery_, _Unpeaceful_, and _Infernal_ positioned in a row behind it, the soldiers, as ordered, immediately armed themselves, then ran to the edge of the ship and leapt headfirst into the dark sea below. Delete stood at the edge, unable to even think of diving from such a high place, as the soldier, now with Buzz on his shoulders, leapt off into the water, shouting "Hold yuh breath!" before submerging into the blackness. Delete shuddered, then turned around—only to find himself face to face with Machinos.

"Don't like to swim, do you?" the tyrant asked him coldly, his eyes burning directly into the robot's. Delete shivered in fear for a moment, then, thinking of the only thing he could do at the time, straightened himself up and saluted.

"N-no, sir!" he exclaimed, rather nervously. "I-I just don't want to dive in there, is all—I mean, I'd be happy to if you want me to, but you see, I'm kind of—"

"Then _go in_," Machinos snapped at him, baring his back molars like some kind of threat. Delete, knowing from experience that it would be bad to start an argument with him, quickly nodded, then turned around, looked down, shivered, then closed his eyes, leaned forward, and finally leapt off the dock. He fell down the monstrous side of the ship, screeching at the top of his lungs, before finally hitting the water and submerging underneath.

He was gone from view for a few moments before finally surfacing, gasping for breath and trying to get the pressured feeling off of his body. He paused to look up at the top of the ship, wondering if in truth that was really how far he had fallen, then shook his head and began swimming after the group of soldiers, toward the Pompadorian loading dock.

He caught up with a soldier that he recognized to be Revel later on, just as they were approaching the area underneath the dock's boards. Revel, who had sensed his presence, looked over at him, then grinned, showing a few of his teeth. _That's a lovely grin_, Delete thought, smiling warmly, but he quickly shook it off and approached him as he got out of the water and began climbing up the crumbling stone wall that led up to Pompadoria itself.

"Nice to see you again," Revel told him, reaching his hand down as so to help the robot up. Tossing his head back as so to get the excess water off of it, he looked at Delete again, then said, "So, are you up for it?"

"Well, not really," Delete replied, scraping the toe of his boot along the ground, almost shyly. "To be honest…I-I'm kinda scared about this whole thing."

"Well, you shouldn't be," Revel replied, putting his hand around the robot's shoulder. "Machinos doesn't exactly approve of cowards, if you know what I mean. Besides, if anything happens…" He smiled and removed his hand from his shoulder. "Just remember, I've got your back."

"Sure, thanks," Delete replied, still a bit uneasy, even after Revel's encouragement scene.

"Right, then," Revel sighed, looking out toward the rows of houses past the loading dock itself. "Machinos told us to go to the stone arch near the field…he said that's the best possible way to get at them without anything else getting in our way."

"Where's the field, though?" Delete asked.

Revel smirked. "Well, that's an easy one," he replied, gesturing toward the massive number of soldiers that were climbing out of the waters from all angles of the loading dock. "All we need to do is follow the others. They'll take us right to 'em."

"But, who's leading them? Machinos is still on the ship."

"He won't be for long." Revel shook his head. "Do you actually think that Machinos would pass by on trying to fight these people? I think not. He just doesn't like getting himself wet, is all, and thus he's waiting for the rest of us to come to shore before he comes over himself."

"How does he do that?" Delete asked, still a bit confused by what Revel was trying to tell him.

"He's got a single lifeboat on the deck," Revel replied, shrugging a shoulder. "He'll catch up to us later. He figures that we already know the way to the field as is; quite a few of us were here before when we battled for Pompadoria the first time." He then shook his head and abruptly turned around. "I wasn't one of them…well, come on, let's go."

He then ran off and, within a few minutes, had blended into the line of soldiers. Delete blinked, then whimpered, clasped his hands together, muttered a few prayers under his breath, then adjusted his sword and quickly jogged over to where they were located, joining the line. Buzz, who apparently was Machinos's second-in-command, was rather reluctantly leading, every now and then nervously glancing at the serious faces of the soldiers behind him. Every part of him felt tense. If he screwed this up…

Luckily, the soldiers seemed to know where they were going. Marching in-between the line of houses, and at the same time arousing several citizens (the lights in their houses were slowly beginning to click on one by one), the soldiers had only one thing on their mind: to fight the enemy and win. Looking up at the vast array of lit and unlit windows, Delete could now see several of the Pompadorian citizens looking out the window, most of them women and children. He swallowed hard and continued walking, trying his best to keep his eyes on the dirt path in front of him.

Much to his (and Buzz's) surprise, Machinos had caught up with them in a heartbeat and was now patiently waiting for them where the road ended, atop his muscular black-and-silver horse, his eyes narrowed and a cold grin upon his face. For a moment Buzz couldn't help but feel relieved; now that he knew Machinos was to take over he wouldn't have to worry about messing things up.

The humid night air was silent for a few more moments, until Machinos finally barked "Forward!", then turned his horse around and rose it to a trot into the grassy fields. The soldiers followed upon command, like an army of tin dolls, their faces expressionless except for Delete's, which bore a look of great fear, and Buzz's, which bore a look of great uneasiness. They knew that they were getting closer to the arch—namely, the battlefield—with every step they took, and something at the back of their heads was screaming for them to run away. Delete shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying his best to stay calm in this situation.

He remained this way, trying to tell himself that it would be fine, he wouldn't get hurt, Buzz wouldn't get hurt, nothing would be too horrible, until he sensed that they had stopped…he opened his eyes and looked up in time to see Machinos say something to one of the soldiers, then fixated his gaze on the soldier as it nodded, then turned around and broke off into a light sprint toward the arch (which, he now saw, was a large, massive, stone structure that towered over the field) and what lay beyond it. The robot only caught a brief glimpse of the thing that had been clutched in his hand.

Swallowing hard, he got down low into the tall grass to think for a few moments. He was still terribly frightened, he knew, and all the convincing in the world wouldn't put a stop to it. He had a great chance of getting killed, so he had every right to be frightened, he thought…he just hoped that he wouldn't screw this up like he had always done in his previous missions with his old boss. Sighing, he finally dragged himself to his feet just as the soldier came sprinting back down along the field, stopping in front of the tyrant and panting harshly.

"Did you do it?" Machinos asked, his voice dead serious.

"Yes, Sire," the soldier panted, looking up at his master and nodding. "I placed it in one of the cracks in the arch. It should go off any second now…"

"Good." The tyrant looked out toward the arch, unsmiling. "Then it'll all begin in just a few more seconds…"

Delete and Buzz exchanged glances, confused, then finally looked out at the arch, along with most of the other soldiers. The robot could see that every one of them were tense; some were licking their lips and others were reaching for their swords. Feeling a bit nervous, now, Delete began to turn his head to look back at the arch—

And jumped backward as with a loud _THOOOOOOMMM_, the entire side of the arch was blasted apart in a cloud of smoke and fire. A red-orange light engulfed the field as the arch disappeared in a cloud of black and gold, then the debris began to rain down across the field, scattering it in all directions. When the smoke finally cleared, Delete could see that there was nothing more left of the arch but a smoldering stone frame. In the background, he heard surprised yells from what undoubtedly were the Pompadorians.

Machinos drew his sword. "That should drive them right into the fields…right where we want them," he growled. "Apparently they think that they may be under attack, which is just as true. The army should come out and fight…and that's when we do our job. Do I make myself clear?"

The other soldiers nodded in response, then drew their swords as well and waited for the signal. Machinos stared out at the area beyond the arch as more yells ensued, then a large group of dark shapes began to run out toward their current location. Baring his teeth, Machinos raised his sword and shouted, "_Attack_!"

At this command, the other soldiers gave loud shouts and began to run down the field toward where the Pompadorians currently were. Delete and Buzz were at first reluctant to do so, but there seemed to be no other choice. Drawing their swords as well, the two joined in the line, trying to keep up with the others as they ran.

When the Pompadorian soldiers came into view, the Dark Rider soldiers immediately leapt upon them, and thus the real fighting began. Buzz and Delete slowed to a stop as they watched their soldiers tousle with the Pompadorian soldiers, every now and then emerging in victory. But one soldier didn't make much of a difference; they knew that there were still about three hundred more of them to take down afterward.

Buzz was the one to react first. Scanning the landscape, he finally sought out an open target and, with a yell, leapt at it, his sword brandished. The soldier he had chosen sensed his presence and brought his own sword up, causing the two to clash. Buzz landed on the ground, still keeping the sword in a defensive position, as the Pompadorian soldier looked down at him, then scoffed.

"You're daring for such a little shrimp," it teased, before bringing up the sword and swinging it down, in a cutting motion. Buzz, furious for being called that, ducked the blow by inches and swung _his_ sword toward the soldier's lower body. It connected successfully and, with a loud _SPAAACKK_, inflicted a deep cut in the right leg. The soldier gave a cry of pain, then dropped to the ground, apparently unable to walk on it any further.

Now that the soldier was defenseless, Buzz was ready to deliver the final blow. He ran over, then easily leapt upon the soldier's back and, raising his sword upward, plunged it down into the spine. He heard a loud snapping sound as the bone came loose, and the soldier let out a final cry of pain before falling limp. Buzz looked down at it to make sure that it was entirely dead, then nodded, twisted the blade around to snap the bone some more, then finally pulled it out, the tip now stained bright red.

"That's the way to go, General!" Machinos called to him as he rode past on his horse, pausing to stab another one of the soldiers through the forehead. Buzz smiled weakly as he disappeared into the line of fighting again, then bit his lip and looked down at the dead soldier for a few moments, wondering if what he did was right for him…

That was when he felt a force connect with his side, sending him off the soldier's back and onto the dusty ground a few feet away. Gasping, he then felt a searing hot pain in the area where the force had connected…it was terrible…it felt as if it were eating him from the inside-out…wondering what it was, he reached down toward the area where it had struck and felt around, then groaned and lay on his side for a few more moments.

He'd been shot.

Knowing that he'd be killed if he remained here, however, he struggled to pull himself to his feet, but was knocked down into the dirt by a group of two other soldiers, now towering over him. Looking up at them helplessly, he knew that he wasn't about to get any medical help from these two anytime soon; they were Pompadorians. One of them had now placed its foot on top of his wounded side, driving him further into the dirt. The second one snatched up the sword from the dust, then looked over it a few more moments before snorting and tossing it over near their dead comrade's body.

"Bastard," the first one growled, bringing more force onto his wound. Buzz made a pained noise, but refused to scream; it would only give them more pleasure, he knew. "You were that son-of-a-whore over at the ambush, were you not?"

Buzz made no response. The soldier sneered, then brought up his weapon; Buzz could see the glint of the barrel in the moonlight. Lowering it to the side of his head, the soldier said, rather coldly, "You're gonna pay for what you did. You're really gonna pay…"

The robot could do nothing but whimper, then close his eyes and wait for the bullet to deactivate his mind chip. The Pompadorian grinned at this little show of mercy, then reached his finger toward the trigger and slowly began to squeeze it…

"_Get away from him_!"

Buzz opened his eyes, then looked up as another dark figure collided with the soldier, sending him tripping over his victim and sprawling him out on the ground. The figure then leapt over him and, raising his sword, swung it sideways, inflicting a diagonal cut in the soldier's back, sending a spray of blood out onto the grass. The first soldier screamed, the second one looked over at the scene in awe.

The stout robot, despite the pain in his side, slowly staggered to his feet, but fell back down again. Deciding it was hopeless, he instead turned his attention to the scene and looked up in time to see that his savior had turned out to be none other than Delete. He was now standing in front of the fallen soldier, his sword brandished, his eyes narrowed, and his teeth bared. He was _furious_, Buzz knew, and that surprised him.

The first soldier looked up at him, then growled and got to his feet, drawing his sword on doing so. Delete responded by getting low, then diving under him and swinging upward, severing the hand that bore the weapon with one easy blow. The soldier gasped in pain as the sword—with the bleeding hand still clutching it—fell to the ground, and Delete responded by easily picking it up. Shaking the hand loose, he leapt at the first soldier, then plunged the swords in two different places—the first one went through the forehead, the second one went through the chest. This destroyed the soldier instantly; he dropped to the ground the moment Delete pulled the swords loose. Snarling in fury, he then whipped around to face the second soldier.

The second soldier stared at him, dumbfounded, then finally screamed and ran for it. Delete made no attempt to run after him, and the moment that he was gone from view, his sense of gentility automatically returned. Dropping one sword and sheathing the other, he ran over to where Buzz lay, kneeling down next to him. "Are you alright, Buzzy?" he asked, worriedly.

Buzz was still a little shocked by Delete's show of fury on the two soldiers, and thus, despite the pain he was currently in, could only reply, "Yeah…yeah, I'm…just fine."

"You sure?" Delete asked, looking over at the bleeding wound in Buzz's side. "That looks pretty bad to me. I think that we should maybe try and see if we can close the wound up or somethin' before you go back out there."

"Delete, I said I'm—" He then remembered what had happened to him during the ambush, and had decided that it was best to take his little brother's word for it at the time. "Okay, okay, just find a way to patch it up before I bleed to death."

"But I don't wanna leave you," Delete replied, shaking his head.

"You don't have to," Buzz replied, trying his hardest to keep his breathing state normal. "Just patch it up with the dirt, okay?" He gestured toward the dust on the ground, which had turned dark brown from his blood and was beginning to moisten. Delete looked down at it, then nodded, took some up, and applied the temporary gauze to his brother's side.

Buzz tried to stagger to his feet yet again, then sighed and dropped to one knee. Delete, worried, helped him to his feet, then said, "Don't work too hard, okay? I really don't want you to die." He seemed desperate for his safety. "Please?"

"Fine, fine, I won't," Buzz sighed; Delete smiled, then turned around and sprinted off back into the battle. Buzz sighed and looked after him, his vision still slightly clouded over, then looked over in time to see a few more of the soldiers advancing on him. Growling, he brandished his sword and stood his ground at them, his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Bring it on, bastards…" he muttered to himself…

Delete ran back into the main battle and sprinted past several fighting soldiers, trying not to kill anyone unless he had to, until he sought out Revel in the crowd. Revel was battling another one of the soldiers, and the two seemed to be equally matched. Revel, he found, was a very agile fighter, but the Pompadorians appeared to be as well. Revel appeared to know every move that the soldier did, however, and the Pompadorian was beginning to tire. Finally fed up with dodging, he swung the sword at a different angle, connecting it with Revel's chest and raking the blade across it, leaving a bright red mark.

Delete whimpered at the sight of this, but Revel appeared to know what he was doing. The robot yelled in pain, then looked down at his side, then at the soldier, then with a loud scream plunged his sword forward, sending it directly into the stomach. The soldier gasped, blood began to leak out the corners of his mouth, and Revel responded by bringing the sword upward, slicing the soldier open in one blow. Delete covered his eyes as the soldier's entrails began to fall from the gash, then reopened them in time to see it fall to the ground, apparently dead. Revel sheathed his sword, then turned to face Delete.

"Sorry you had to see that," he sighed. "These things just have to happen, you know."

"I know, I know, I'm not sorry I did," Delete replied, although in truth he had been horrified at the sight. He looked down at Revel's chest wound. "You gonna be okay?"

Revel cocked his head to one side, apparently confused, then his gaze traveled down to the cut; apparently he had been too occupied with the soldier to even notice the pain. He looked back up at Delete, then shook his head. "I'll be fine. Even if I drop after a while, I'll still be able to mark a few soldiers up on the death count."

"I've already killed one," Delete replied, rather reluctantly as he looked down at the bloodstained ground. "I wasn't very happy with it…but he was gonna hurt Buzz, I'll bet, and there was no one else around…I had to do _something_…"

"It's not your fault," Revel replied, shaking his head. "The main point of war is blood and killing. That's basically everything that's involved with being part of the Machinos army." He looked out toward the scene in front of him. "Now, if you don't mind, I think I'm going to sever the heads of a few more of 'em…"

"Okay—" Delete replied, but he was cut short by something entering his back. His sentence ended with a frightened gasp, as he looked down at his chest. Much to his horror, he could see the silver tip of an enemy blade emerge from the front, near his left side. Blood began to cascade from the cut and stain the dark green of his uniform an ugly brown.

_So this is what being stabbed feels like_, he thought to himself, as his head began to swim. _It feels like fire…oh God, how it hurts…make it stop…make it stop…I don't care if you kill me, just make it stop…_

He began to sway uneasily, and the bearer of the blade slowly removed the sword from his chest, allowing him to drop to the ground, sprawling out onto his side. His breathing became irregular—the blade had punched a good-sized hole in one of his lungs—and he closed his eyes tightly, bringing both hands to the wound. The pain became even worse as time passed…he could feel tears stinging his eyes, threatening to pour through his closed eyelids…and the blood, oh God, the blood…

His thinking became nonsense, his motor skills slowed, and he was beginning to slowly slip into unconsciousness. He heard the ground move as the bearer of the blade came closer; further off, he heard Revel's angry screaming:

"_You damned son of a_—"

He then heard the sound of metal against metal, and then he became deaf to the world. His head was swimming too much to even make out the profanities and sounds of the fight above him. All that mattered now to his system was the pain…the pain…the unspeakable pain…

He couldn't move. He could barely breathe. He couldn't even stay awake…soon enough he felt himself slipping…slipping…


	11. The Battle of Pompadoria, part II

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter XI: The Battle of Pompadoria, Part II

Delete was awoken a few hours later (or so it may have seemed; the robot had little to no idea of the amount of time that had passed since he had fallen) by Revel, who was desperately shaking him by the shoulders in an attempt to get him up. He was also saying phrases that Delete found to be unintelligible, but it wasn't this that had caused him to stir. Besides the fact that he had fallen shortly before the clouds overhead gathered, it had started to shower ever so lightly upon them, without moment's notice. A few raindrops plopped onto his face as he groaned, then finally opened one eye partway. Revel, who was still holding him by the shoulders, gave a sigh of relief, then dropped him back onto the ground.

"Thank God you're awake," he said; then he reached over and gently began to feel around Delete's sword wound. "This looks pretty bad, though…and I mean it this time." Delete shuddered as the metallic tips of his fingers lightly grazed the open gash. "I don't think you're in any condition to fight. We should get you back to the _Bloodlust_ before you drop away entirely—"

"Who's winning…?" Delete asked groggily, closing his eyes again.

Revel looked at him oddly, then the thought came to mind that he was probably referring to who was winning out of the two armies. Pausing to crane his neck over at the scenario behind him, the soldier then looked back down at Delete and said, rather reluctantly, "I…don't know. It doesn't look too good for our army, though…"

Delete sighed, then looked up toward the sky for a few moments. The amount of rain falling from the clouds blurred his vision further, however, thus he tilted his head to the side and looked over at another particular battle scene. Several soldiers, both Dark Rider and Pompadorian, lay in the grass a few yards away from him. Further back, a few of the remaining soldiers were still fighting one another in cold blood. Delete closed his eyes again, not sure what to make of this, then tilted his head to the other side to look at what was going on over there. What he saw was less than pleasant.

This part of the battlefield apparently had some type of explosive set out about it. From his view, he could see one of the soldiers—one of _his _soldiers—maneuvering his way through the array of dead bodies that littered the ground, looking alert, gun-equipped and ready for the first signs of danger.

The danger came to him first, however. Just as he stepped forward a deafening explosion erupted from the ground, hitting the Rider dead on and blowing him to pieces—literally. Delete watched, his eyes wide in horror, as the Rider was engulfed in flames, the tin surface was blasted away, and the innards were fried to ash. He didn't even get the chance to scream before meeting his demise.

Beginning to shiver uncontrollably, he at first felt like weeping, but then his gaze hardened. Looking back toward Revel, he growled, refusing to show any of the sensitivity that had always been concealed within him, "We aren't givin' up until they _beg for mercy_." He extended his hand. "Help me to my feet."

Revel bit his lip, then got to his feet and, taking Delete's hand in his, helped him up. The robot was a bit tipsy at first but quickly regained his balance, now ignoring the blood that was still dripping down from his punctured lung. "Alright, you know what we're gonna do. They're gonna pay for that…"

"That they will," Revel replied, grinning. He unsheathed his sword, its bloodied tip glimmering in the silvery aura that the rain gave off. "The weak and injured are the first to go, am I correct?"

Delete nodded, smiling casually and almost coldly. "Then we send the leader to his knees. I've learned that from experience—if you take down the leader, the others are sure to fall."

"Right," Revel agreed, nodding. He scanned the landscape for any signs of victims. "Now, then…let's see if we can pin a few more soldiers down onto the death count before we kill the leader himself."

The two robots then ran into the line of fire yet again, their swords brandished and their teeth bared. A few of the Pompadorian soldiers had sought them out in the battlefield and, seeing that they both had serious wounds, had charged upon them, hoping to take them down before vice versa. Their attempts had been in vain, however, for no sooner had they unsheathed their swords that they were taken down mercilessly by Revel and Delete. More blood rained to the ground as the two robots began making their way up to the front, toward the area where the higher ranks were fighting. They wanted a challenge, and they were going to get it.

On the other side of the battlefield, Buzz was still struggling with trying to hold off the Pompadorian soldiers that had ganged up on him. He had already successfully destroyed four of them; they lay in the ground in a mess of scattered carnage, but the other two were quicker and apparently more skilled than he was. The stocky robot was using all his time just trying to block their attacks, and even then it seemed futile; he already was drenched in blood, both his own and the enemy's. He narrowed his eyes; if he was ever going to try and sight out the higher ranks, he was going to need to take a few more risks.

Gritting his teeth, he removed his sword from the defensive position and tried a low attack. The sword unfazed the first soldier but struck the second one; it gave a cry of pain as its ankle was sliced to the bone. Buzz grinned, knowing that he had made contact, then tried a medium attack on the soldier, stabbing it into the stomach. The second soldier gasped; the first one gave a roar of fury and charged him. Still hanging onto the sword, Buzz shot up and kicked the second one's hand, sending the sword out of its fist and onto the ground.

Before the soldier could retrieve it, Buzz pulled the sword out of the second soldier's stomach, then leapt and stabbed blindly, sending it directly into the shoulder blade of the first soldier. He heard another scream of pain, then grinned and, removing his sword from the shoulder, stabbed it into the chest while the soldier was still occupied. He heard a loud _CRRIICK_ as the sword drove its way through the spongy breastbone and eventually hit the heart, sending the soldier to the ground almost immediately. As it lay there dying, Buzz yanked the sword out of the ribcage, then growled and turned toward the front of the line.

Making sure that there were no other soldiers coming after him, the robot decided to unleash the feeling of triumph, of power, and of confidence that he felt. Emitting a loud battle cry, he ran through the lines of fighting soldiers toward the front of the line, ignoring the other creatures, both robot and Pompadorian, looking after him with odd looks upon their faces, almost angry. The stout robot refused to stop his running, however, until he finally came to the front of the line.

He knew that the higher ranks were certainly more powerful, now. Dead bodies of his soldiers were scattered all across the ground in a half-circle pattern, leaving a large puddle of blood around them; he was briefly reminded of those poorly prepared gelatin desserts he had come across back home—the juice and the gelatin always separated from each other, whether you liked it or not. Growling and taking this thought off of his mind (it was ridiculous to be thinking about such a thing at a time like this), he narrowed his eyes, then scanned the landscape, trying to sight out his target of interest.

He found it standing near the charred and fallen remains of the arch. Standing in front of it, not a scratch on him, was the leader of the Pompadorian army. He was cloaked entirely in red and silver, and was sitting atop a milky colored horse. His steed stomped its hoof every now and then, but for the time being he seemed perfectly unfazed by the scene in front of him. Buzz, a plan coming to mind, sheathed his sword and quickly ran up to him, stopping only a few yards away.

The Pompadorian leader took a few seconds to shift his gaze down to him, but took no interest of the robot and looked back up toward the battle scene. Buzz snarled again; the leader obviously thought that he was not to be taken seriously at all. Knowing that he had to get his attention, however, he did the only thing that could come to his mind at the time. He spat at him, successfully managing to land his saliva excretion onto the front hoof of his horse.

The horse whinnied and drew back, and the Pompadorian leader, knowing very well that being spat at was an insult to authority, narrowed his eyes this time, and said, rather angrily, "You shouldn't have done that." Buzz would've laughed at this if it hadn't sounded so much like a threat. And indeed it was, for he could tell that the leader was reaching for his sword. "Someone oughta teach you some respect for your highers, you little son of a—"

"Ya know what?" Buzz replied, smirking in an attempt to get the leader angry enough to come after him. "I don't really care. To me you're just another piece of cybertrash. What are you gonna do about 'dat, huh? Spank me?" He crossed his hands over his chest and confidently raised an eyebrow, an expression that drove the leader mad.

His eyes flashing in anger, the leader drew out his sword; Buzz began to back up, this was part of the plan that he had in mind. "Oh, I'll do much worse than that," he replied, gritting his teeth. He kicked his horse in the sides, sending it rearing up and charging over in Buzz's direction. Buzz, knowing that this was going to happen, unsheathed his sword yet again, then twisted his hands around the blade before standing tough, directly in the horse's path. The hooves of the milky white steed pounded the ground as it neared him…just a few more seconds, now…a few more seconds…

Now was the time. Just as the horse's neck passed over him, he raised the sword above the ribcage and stabbed with all the force he had, driving it into the beast's chest. The horse gave a loud scream of pain as Buzz released his hand from the blade, then immediately fell over him, landing on its front with a loud _THWWICCK _into the muddy ground. This caused the leader to fall off, landing in the mud a few yards away from his steed and rolling across the gore before finally coming to a stop.

Buzz, panting, whipped around to face him as he slowly got to his feet, looking rather dazed. As soon as he had the mud wiped out of his hair and eyes, the leader turned to look up at Buzz with an expression of loathing, then slowly got to his feet and began looking along the ground for his sword.

Buzz waited, still breathing harshly in anger, as the leader sought out his sword, then pulled it out of the mud and held it up in a threatening position. His teeth bared, the leader took another step toward the stout robot, then hissed, at maximum rage now, "You probably think that you'll get away with that, eh?"

"Well, it looks like I did," Buzz replied angrily, gesturing over toward the fallen horse without taking any further glances. The leader growled, then replied, now rather smug for some reason or another:

"You may have killed my horse, but in the process you've unarmed yourself. Where's your sword, eh? Where is it?" He now seemed to be mocking the stout robot. Buzz raised an eyebrow, unsure of what he was getting at, then realized for the first time in about a two-minute range that he was indeed without his sword. 

Slightly panicked, he whipped his head over toward the direction of the fallen steed; sure enough, when he had killed the horse he had left his sword wedged into its chest. There was no hope in trying to retrieve it now, he knew. Perspiration starting to drip down the side of his head and mingling with the rain, he murmured "No…" and turned to look back at the leader, now all nervousness and no hope.

The leader smirked. "I figured that you'd be dumber than you look," he taunted, beginning to walk toward him, the sword still at ready. Buzz, now that the leader had the upper hand, lost all thoughts of trying to stand tough and backed up, whimpering, almost ready to retreat. The leader chortled at his fear. "There's no one around here that can save you. The only one who dares to fight the higher ranks is that bastard of a tyrant you serve, and I'm pretty sure that _he_ doesn't care."

Buzz glared at this remark but still knew that he didn't stand a chance. He continued to back up, toward the fallen arch, his heart crashing wildly inside his chest and his breathing coming in short, frightened gasps. He knew that he shouldn't show fear; the leader could obviously sense it within him, but he didn't know what else to do. There was indeed no one around, and the other soldiers were already too busy with the remaining Pompadorians…

Just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, the leader lunged forward with a loud yell, slashing the sword in a diagonal cut, managing to leave a bleeding gash in Buzz's temples before finishing the blow. Buzz let out a cry of fright and pain, then brought his hands to his head, gritting his teeth. The leader grinned at this little show of agony, then decided to worsen the case and slashed at him again. This time the blade went across the back, sending the robot to his feet from the force. Buzz gasped a few times, then he finally began to sway uneasily, then his legs buckled out from under him and he collapsed onto his side; the loss of blood in his numerous injuries had proven at this time to be too much.

The leader smiled coldly at the sight of this, then, knowing that Buzz was now completely unable to defend himself, began to advance on him, taking a few steps at a time as so to build the robot's fear further. When he was certain that he had made his point, he stepped in front of the fallen creature and raised the blade up, preparing to plunge it down into the side…

He was cut short, however, by his head suddenly disconnecting from his shoulders and hitting the ground in a splash of blood. Now without the brain, the body's function failed, and it crumpled into a heap on the ground, missing Buzz's motionless body by a few precious inches. And as the body fell, the slayer came into view: Delete. He had come to the front of the line shortly after the leader had driven Buzz into unconsciousness, and he and Revel, after taking down a few soldiers, had caught sight of this scene…it was probably just as well, however, given the situation.

Delete had retained a look of raw anger as he had severed the head, but now upon looking down and seeing exactly what he had done, that feeling faded. The blood was still trickling in steady rhythm from his wound, and the sight of the gore—especially when he had been the one causing it—was now too much. His head began to spin, his body to sway, then he finally let out a weakened moan before dropping to his knees, his arms shaking as they tried to support his weight, then he fell to the ground entirely, blacking out the second that his face hit the muddy surface.

He didn't know how long he was out this time, but he was awoken by a sudden warm feeling spreading throughout his body. At first he thought that he might have been dying, but that theory was quickly killed by the scenery around him as he slowly opened his eyes, and his blurred vision adjusted. Looking up, he could see Revel standing over him, now smiling in relief, along with Abigail, who looked concerned, and Buzz, who looked a bit disturbed for some reason or another. Both Buzz and Revel were heavily bandaged around their wounded areas and currently appeared to be just fine. The robot at first wondered if he was still out on the battlefield—no, it wasn't possible.

"Where…am…I…?" he murmured, his voice sounding weak and scratchy as he struggled to get someone to try and understand him.

"Shh…you're aboard the sickbay on the _Bloodlust_," Abigail replied, gingerly touching her hand to his forehead. "Just quiet down, dear; I think you've went through enough shock for tonight."

"What happened…?" Delete couldn't help but ask a few questions; a feeling of dread was gnawing at the back of his brain. What had happened after he had fallen? Had Machinos lost? Had the Pompadorians killed off the remainder of the army, and maybe even blown up a few of the ships? He had to know. He just had to.

"I told you to be quiet," Abigail replied firmly, crossing her arms.

"He might as well know," Buzz replied, sighing; he then looked at Delete. "Deeds…after you fell, Revel said 'dat he came over and found us lying in 'da dirt…so he tried to get us medical attention. Apparently he had had enough of 'dis…" He looked over to the side, rather nervously. "Anyway, 'da moment 'dat we were taken out to 'da sickbay 'da tables turned. You know how 'da Pompadorians had been winning while we was taking place in 'da fighting?"

Delete hadn't known about this, but he didn't exactly feel like talking too much. "Yes…"

"Well, after you killed of 'da leader 'dey began falling like dominoes." Buzz laughed slightly at this thought. "Machinos and 'da remainder of 'da army managed to drive off the remaining Pompadorian soldiers, 'den he said 'dat Machinos reclaimed 'da land…wish I could've been 'dere; it sounded like fun."

"It was nothing special," Revel replied dully, looking up at him, but Buzz took no notice of this.

"Yeah, Deeds, you really did it…you should congratulate yourself, ya know. If you hadn't of killed off 'da leader, I'd be dead and 'da Pompadorians would probably still be overpowering us."

"Yes, what did I tell you before, dear?" Abigail sighed, shaking her head and looking down at him. "Machinos never loses. At least, I can't recall a time when he's ever lost—oh, wait a minute…" She placed her hand to her cheek. "He did lose one and only one battle…it was that battle for revenge against the slaughter of Fatherboard, remember?"

"I can't; it was before my time," Revel responded, rather darkly. "I have heard him talk about it a few times, though…he said something about a group of wild kids called the 'Freedom Fighters' or some name like that. Man, they really vanquished him that time…"

"Yes…my husband James was a Fatherboard veteran a few years back," Abigail replied. "He knew of the Freedom Fighters, along with another group of kids that looked almost exactly like them…" Her expression turned sour. "At least, that was before Machinos _killed_ him…"

"He'll get his," Revel simply replied, shrugging his shoulder; he then looked back down at Delete. 

"Okay, okay, you guys can just leave the room for the time being, I think that he needs to recover from the blood loss," Abigail replied; she then gave each of them a gentle shove to get them going. The three turned around and began walking out toward the door; all left except Abigail, who had to stay and tend to him in case something worse should resume. When they had left, she turned around and looked back at Delete.

"You should indeed be proud for the time being," she sighed, walking back over to him. "You were very brave, hon. To be entirely honest with you, I didn't think you had it in you to attack someone like that, much less the Pompadorian leader."

"Me either," Delete replied, now sounding rather frightened with himself. "I don't know what came over me…I-I just acted like an assassin for half the battle and I didn't even seem to care…I didn't _care_…" He let out a choking sob; Abigail looked at him with great concern.

"Are you going to be all—" she began, but she was cut off by a high-pitched screech farther back in the room. Flinching at the noise, she looked up in that direction, then sighed and tossed the dishrag she was holding down onto the counter, beginning to head toward the back. "I'll be right back," she told Delete as she left his view, "I just need to tend to another one of the injured soldiers. Idiot's got a cut the size of my arm. Won't take the iodine, he says. Well, this is the last straw…we'll just see who's not taking _his_ medicine…"

As her footsteps died away, Delete focused his attention back on the ceiling and resumed his train of thought. He had indeed not cared when he killed the soldiers and finally destroyed the leader. He had been unconscious when Machinos had reclaimed Pompadoria as his own, thus he didn't know what it felt like to be at a winning victory scene. He wondered if he would've cared that his actions had cost the Pompadorians their cybersite…he didn't know, but he didn't exactly not care, either. He wanted to know if he was turning into a splitting image of Machinos—an assassin who didn't care a night about other peoples' wellbeing.

He knew why he had fainted. It wasn't just because of the injuries, it was because of the fact that he had killed off the one thing that the Pompadorians had left—their leader. The sight of the severed head had been too much after all this, thus he had dropped to his knees, fell to the ground, and blacked out. It was a blank after that, and now…this.

His other main curiosity was why he had felt that warm feeling wash over him as he woke up. He had only felt it far back in the past (shortly after wetting the bed, sadly enough), but this was different than that. It was a nice feeling…he wondered if it was from the triumph of the battle. But no, it felt more affectionate than triumphant…

He sighed and tried to drop off to sleep again, hoping that this would sort out by itself sooner or later.

"Three ships out of the dock and the _Infernal_'s been exploded. Just as well, I suppose," Machinos growled as he looked out over at the flaming loading dock of Pompadoria, his shoulders hunched over the _Bloodlust_'s rail and a vexed gaze upon his face. The tall soldier, who was standing beside him, looked at his master, then looked over at the dock just as a final explosion sent the flaming remains of the _Infernal_ into the dark waters below.

"It's a shame, suh," he replied sympathetically.

Machinos glared at him. "Never mind that, I can easily manage to plunder another one from one of my different cybersites." He drummed the fingers of his iron-gray hand onto the rail almost impatiently. "Now then…tell me what I need to know. Give me the death count."

The soldier made a hurking noise, then bit his lower lip and looked over toward the dock. Machinos growled angrily, then said, sounding a bit more impatient than last time, "Did you hear me? I said, give me the death count."

"I heard you, suh. It's just that after tonight, I don't think that you'd like to heah the death count right now."

"It's now or never, soldier. Give it to me or I'll tally _you_ up on the death count."

The soldier sighed, then shook his head and replied, rather nervously, "One hundred ninety seven dead, suh. Thirty-three badly injured." Machinos cringed at this. "Your general and militia were two of them. The badly injured, I mean."

"Damn it," Machinos replied, tightening his grip on the rail. "This is going to be the death of me. We've got to do something about this…"

Buzz, meanwhile, was sitting atop one of the wooden barrels on the dock, looking out at the dawning sky in front of him. His injuries still greatly pained him, but he had recovered rather quickly and was now able to at least walk. He didn't feel like doing anything physical for the moment, however, and instead was pondering to himself yet again about what Machinos thought of him…that, and what he had seen in the sickbay shortly before Delete awoke. He shuddered at the mere thought of that.

Looking over the past events, he figured that he was lucky to have survived. His injuries had been quite serious when they were first inflicted, but the moment that he was taken in he was immediately given medical attention; they didn't want any more blood on the dock, he thought. Delete wasn't much worse, but there was a difference. At least Buzz hadn't had a blade go directly _through_ him…

__

I'll be glad to get back, he sighed, looking down at the gold-and-green badge pinned to the side of his chest. _I've seen enough action for one night…I just hope that there aren't any pirates around in these waters_. He looked out at the sea, thoughtfully. _You never can be too careful in a time period like this…_

He then turned his head to the side and looked over just in time to see Delete, who was now looking better after having slept for a few hours, staggering out onto the dock. Buzz was relieved to see him, and yet at the same time a bit surprised. He didn't expect for Delete to be one to recover so quickly. Then again, they both _were_ robots, after all…

"What were you thinking about, Buzzie?" Delete asked, taking his seat next to him on the floor of the dock.

Buzz looked down at him, then sighed and looked back up toward the waters. "Oh, I was just thinking about what happened earlier during 'da battle for Pompadoria. I just don't think it…well, my mind is kind of bothering me as of late."

"Why is it bothering you?" his younger brother asked, drawing his knees up to his chest and looking at him in puzzlement. Buzz sighed, then weakly smiled; sometimes Delete could be so innocent that he could press anything onto him…or lie, one of the two. He mostly stuck with the latter, it was easier.

"Oh…I just don't know if I should be general or not," he replied, and this did have a bit of truth to it. Lately, as far as his ego was concerned, he wasn't sure if he should stay with Machinos or go back to Ruben and start something entirely different. "It's just been bothering me a lot, Deeds. Have you already decided what you're going to do?"

Delete cocked his head. "What do you mean? I thought that we was goin' back to Ruben and the others and tellin' him what we found out. Wasn't that a part of the agreement that we made, Buzz?"

"Uh…well, yeah, of course, but—"

"Which reminds me, I've already made a deal with Abigail—you know, that cat woman at the sickbay. She told me that Ruben was her son and that she wanted to help us get out of the grounds, and come with us. I agreed, so…when are we gonna come around to carrying that out?" There was no answer. "Buzz?"

Buzz was silent for a few more moments before finally snapping back into reality. "Sorry, Deeds, lost my train of thought…anyway, what was it 'dat you was sayin' about Abigail and such?"

"Um—Abigail agreed that she'd help us get out of here," Delete replied, not wanting to explain the whole thing over again; his brain was already on overload. He stretched his legs out on the dock and sighed. "I can't wait to get back to the grounds…I need to sleep in a real bed for awhile after all this."

"Yeah, and Revel said 'dat Machinos was going to have an inaugural ball for it in a week or something like 'dat," Buzz added, nodding. "I can't wait for 'dat. I haven't been to a real fancy party before in my life…"

"What about that time when the boss decided to throw that fancy party?"

"No one came to it, remember?"

"Oh yeah…"

"Yeah, I'm lookin' forward to 'dat," Buzz said, looking out at the now lightening sky. He looked over at Delete. "And, DeeDee, I've been…well, seeing things as of late, and I want you to do something for me…just one little favor, nothing else."

Delete looked up at him curiously. "What's that?"

"Delete…" He sighed again, thinking that this was foolish; Revel couldn't possibly have been serious when he had done that, but all the same, he needed to protect his little brother. "I want yas to stay away from Revel. And I mean it. Stay as far away from him as you possibly can."

Delete cocked his head again. "But…why?"

"Just stay away from him," Buzz replied warningly. "I don't feel happy with what he's tryin' to do to yas. Sure, it's bad enough 'dat he's a half-drunk, but…" He stopped before he came close to spilling the incident at the sickbay out. "Okay, okay, listen, I don't want you to get too close to him, is all. Can you do 'dat?"

Delete looked at him, now a little nervous, then finally nodded. "Yes, Buzzie."

"Good." Buzz resumed to looking back out at the darkened waters, which were now promising to sparkle with the new sunrise. Delete looked out at the waters too, wondering what Buzz had seen and why he wanted him to stay away from Revel. Revel was a half-drunk, and he knew that, but he seemed so nice…was he really as dangerous as his suspicions suggested?

He shook his head and resumed to watching the blue settings before him, drifting into a sudden peace of mind.


	12. Hopefully So

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter XII: Hopefully So

"Sorry, hun, but I'm afraid I haven't seen anyone else 'round these parts."

"Are you sure?" Matt asked dejectedly, placing his palms flat against the front of the Nowhere food stand. The kids and their alternates had arrived at Nowhere a few moments ago, and had gone around asking the very few residents that lived there if they had seen any sign of Globus Jayon. Everyone that they had asked had replied with the simple answer of no, and now Matt, leading the expedition, was beginning to get a little bit frustrated.

"Yep. There hasn't been another new resident residing here for eons," the redheaded woman at the stand replied, eyeing the cutting knife she was currently polishing. "I dunno where you got the intention 'at she was livin' here, but she ain't now, I'll tell you that."

Matt sighed and rolled his eyes up toward the empty sky. "Well, thanks, anyway," he replied, still as dejectedly as he had been before, then he turned around and began to head back to the Coupe, his shoulders slumped. Jackie noticed this and ran up beside him, keeping an even pace with the discouraged redhead as she spoke.

"Matt, you don't need to feel bad," she replied, almost sympathetically. "I mean, it's not like it's your fault that she isn't here or anything—"

"I'm _not_," Matt replied rather roughly; he then refused to say anything more to the African-American girl. Codebird and Digit were the first to catch up to them, being creatures of flight, and the others were still behind, looking around at their surroundings—which, considering the fact that this was cybersite Nowhere, not very much. Matt was the first to arrive at the Coupe and the first to take his seat inside, his arms crossed tightly over his chest and his face set in a rather discouraged glare. Jackie took her seat next to Matt and, deciding that it was best not to talk to him any further until his mood improved, stared straight ahead, her hands crossed in her lap.

"What's up with Matt?" Inez whispered to Jackie as she arrived at the Coupe and took her seat next to Jackie, while trying to make room for the other three that were to arrive soon enough.

Jackie looked at her, then shrugged and shook her head. "I don't know," she replied, pausing to look over at the boy. "He's just a little annoyed about this whole thing, I'll bet. I mean, how long have we been here looking for her, anyway?"

"About three hours or something," Inez responded, shaking her head as well. "I'm starting to get rather impatient myself…you know how Matt hates to wait for things."

"Yeah…" Jackie looked over at him again, then looked back over at the door as Matthew and Jacqueline got in, followed by Zeny, leaving them in a cramped state once again. Digit and Codebird opened the door on the driver's side, then quickly leapt in and slammed the door before anyone could fall out again. Digit started the Coupe, then looked over at the others.

"You guys alright?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hmm?" Matt looked at him, then looked back down at the floor. "Yeah, yeah, I'm just fine."

Digit and the girls shot each other looks before Digit finally shrugged, and, with a reply of "Okay," lifted them up out of Nowhere, onto the main cyber-highway. 

After a few moments, however, Digit began to ponder again. "I just don't get it," he muttered to himself, looking down at the dashboard. "I mean, I thought for sure that she would be there…then again, it's been quite awhile since I last saw her…I mean, when was the last time I got my palm read…?"

"Watch out for that bus!" Jackie exclaimed, pointing straight ahead through the windshield. Digit quickly looked up, then swerved in time to miss hitting the approaching bus and continued on with his regular driving path, starting to ponder to himself yet again.

"I mean, I know that she left to go someplace where she wouldn't be bothered, but other than Nowhere I can't think of what cybersite that might be. Eureeka would be a good site to look on, or perhaps Mobius…but no, Mobius is completely deserted, and Eureeka is too…bizarre." He looked out the windshield again, then made a quick left turn. "Sensible Flats may be a good choice, but that's so…I dunno, not very gypsy-ish…"

"Hey!" Inez suddenly exclaimed, craning her neck in order to look out the windshield at what lay ahead of them. Digit, this having caught his attention, looked over at her, then looked back out at the road...in time to see a small portion of land, along with an individual standing at the edge, his thumb upright and jabbing toward the direction that they were going in. He was a tall man, with black hair and a ragged brown coat, and appeared to want to catch their attention.

"It's a hitchhiker!" Matt exclaimed, pushing his way past the others cramped around him in order to catch a glimpse of the man better. "I see those when I go driving with my dad sometimes…he says that they're dangerous, though."

"Pfft, he doesn't look all that tough," Jacqueline replied, looking out at the man and crossing her arms. "I could probably take him down with one single—"

"Shush!" Matthew snapped at her; he then looked out at the man, which wasn't too hard to do now; Digit had slowed down in order to help his passengers make their decision. "He looks fine to me. There's nothing too suspicious about him…I say that we pick him up. It couldn't hurt."

"How do you know for sure?" Digit asked, sounding rather unsettled as he gripped the steering controls and stared out at the man.

"Trust me, when you've lived in the forest for five years you begin to notice these things," Matthew replied. "Just stop the Coupe and let him in. We'll drop him off at his destination, then start searching again, okay?"

Digit thought for a few moments, then finally sighed, replied "Okay, fine," and slowed the Coupe to a halt at the edge of the small piece of land. The man grinned, then quickly ran over and opened one of the doors, then jumped into the backseat (smack between Zeny and Codebird) and looked over the edge.

"Yo, thanks fer pickin' me up," he replied, in a slightly Texan accent. "I was just gonna head toward R-Fair City…maybe try my luck at one o' their new casino games." He turned his pockets inside out, revealing that there was nothing in them but a few quarters. "I'm low on money, as ya'll can see here."

"That's too bad," Matt replied, nodding, trying his best to sound sympathetic for this stranger. "Anyway, we'll drop you off at your destination, but right now we're kind of busy with a few things."

The stranger grinned again, this time showing his teeth, which apparently hadn't been brushed in quite awhile. Jackie cringed at seeing him as he replied, "Oh, really? What kinda things?" He looked down at the kids, who were looking back at him almost suspiciously. "Not 'at I'm nosy, mind you. I like ta know these things once in awhile."

"Uh…oh, we're just looking for a fortune teller somewhere around here," Digit replied, almost casually. "Her name's Globus Jayon. We have to find her for one reason or another, but I don't know where she's currently located…"

"Last time I saw someone like 'er, she was in Castleblanca," the man replied, shrugging a shoulder. "I was there at the night of the second annual Harvest Moon Ball…stayed a night in the hotel there. Nasty place…" He shuddered. "But I think you should check there first if you want ta get better results. It was only a few weeks ago when I last saw 'er, so she should still be there."

At hearing this, all three kids, along with Digit, brightened, while Jacqueline continued to glower at the man and Zeny and Codebird, who were sitting right next to him, looking at him uneasily. "Wow, thanks!" Digit replied, now sounding much better than what he had been a few moments ago. "Now, then…R-Fair City's on the way to Castleblanca. Should we drop you off first?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," the stranger replied, nodding as he placed his elbows on the back of the seat. Digit nodded happily, then stepped onto the gas pedal and shot off toward their first destination.

"You imbecilic fortune teller!" Hacker exclaimed angrily, slamming the necklace that Globus had given him earlier down onto her table. "You ripped me off! You gave me a lousy necklace! I oughta have you slain for this at once!"

The fortune-teller remained unfazed, placing one hand on her table and slowly clasping the other around the pendant. "I did nothing of the sort," she replied calmly, drawing the necklace in toward her. "If it backfired, you must've misused it somehow. You cannot blame me for what power the necklace holds."

"Well, let me tell you something, _Missy_," Hacker growled, jabbing a finger in the direction of her face. "I _can_ blame you, and I _will_ blame you. Thanks to your lousy interpretation, I lost both of my henchmen and the entire plan I had in mind was wasted. Unless you can fix this now, I shall have to deal with you personally myself."

"I cannot fix what's already been done. The Portal of Forty only answers the most powerful calls, and even so I doubt it'll bring back your henchman unharmed. No one has even known to date where that portal leads." She shook her head. "It's your mistake. Deal with it."

"I don't care a night about my henchmen!" Hacker snapped at her. "I needed that portal for one of my master plans, and now that it's been ruined I demand a refund! And if you don't have that type of power, you'd better learn it fast!"

Globus thought for a few moments, then finally replied, "Tell me this…are you even suspecting why the portal opened up in the wrong place? Where were you directing it towards?"

"I was directing it toward a different portal, one that's been artificially generated by mortal hands," Hacker replied, offering the best description he could think of at the time. "But it somehow opened up in the main control room of the Wreaker instead, and now I demand a refund. It should've opened up where I told it to. I followed your directions FLAWLESSLY!" He slammed his fist down on the table, almost snapping it in two in the process.

The fortune-teller jumped as he did this, then looked at him angrily before pondering once more for a few moments. "No wonder it failed you…you cannot open a portal inside another portal. It is virtually impossible to do so and always fails, often with drastic consequences." She looked at him fiercely. "You can't blame me for your failed mission. It's your fault, and you know this very well."

Hacker gritted his teeth; he looked ready to kill something, and almost was about to if Jacqueline hadn't of jumped in at that moment. "Not so fast!" she exclaimed angrily, hitting him in the back with both feet and causing him to land roughly on the floor, scattering the pillows strewn about in the process. Hacker made a surprised noise as the girl hit him, then looked up in time to see the Jackie look-alike get off of him, her hands placed on her hips.

"You little brat!" he exclaimed. "And what did you do to your hair?"

"Shut it." Jacqueline slugged him in the jaw, causing him to fall backward again; luckily this time one of the pillows broke his fall. As he fell over it, with the fortune-teller looking on, rather startled indeed, the other kids came running in, followed by Digit and Codebird in flight. Digit looked down at Hacker, who was clearly looking very shocked, then sniggered and quickly flew behind Matt as the green man tried to grab at him.

"You're not going to get away with it this time, Hacker!" Matt exclaimed, pointing at him. "Tell us what you're planning on doing now, or else we're going to have to get rougher!" He smiled at what he just said. "Man, now I really feel like a superhero."

Hacker quickly got to his feet and looked at the two groups of kids, clearly appalled. "What!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide. "What is this? Who are these other three children?"

"Don't call me a child," Jacqueline growled roughly, and gave him a kick to the stomach with the ball of her foot, causing him to gasp in pain and almost fall backward again. "Just so you know, you sorry excuse for a tyrant, we're their alternates from…somewhere else—" She said this as she looked at Matthew and Zeny's disapproving glares—"And we're here to stop you."

"Stop me?" Despite the amount of physical pain that he endured, Hacker laughed. "For doing what? The most that I did was take a misused pendant and cause my plan for destroying you brats to backfire."

"What are you talking about?" Matt demanded, stepping forward in an attempt to sound fierce. Jacqueline looked over at him, then shrugged it off and looked back at Hacker, her arms crossed.

"You should know very well what I'm talking about," Hacker replied, crossing his arms as well. "And if you don't, just ask _this_ sorry excuse for a fortune-teller over here." He gestured toward Globus Jayon, who glared at him before looking back at the kids and their alternates.

Matthew looked over at her, then back at Hacker, then finally sighed and began to walk toward her. "I suppose that she's the best source we have," he sighed, before looking up at Hacker. "Back off," he growled at the green man as he shoved past him; Hacker glared at him and would've considered attacking him from behind if it weren't for the fact that the other kids were keeping their eye on him. In truth, the last thing that he wanted was for Jacqueline to kick him again.

"_Do_ you have any information that we could use?" Matthew asked her nicely, placing his hands on the table. "Because we need access to the Portal of Forty as well. You see, we're…not really from around these parts, if you know what I mean." He whispered this last sentence to her, as the others looked on.

The fortune-teller looked at him, then her eyes widened and she slowly nodded her head. "I figured that you didn't come from around here," she sighed, then she replied, "Listen, that pendant was the most that I had left, and even if I try my hardest to try and re-harness that power it'll take up quite a bit of time. It could range from a few hours to a few days; who knows."

"Can you just _please_ try?" Matthew pleaded, clasping his hands together nervously. "We really need to get back there…heck, if we don't get back soon who knows what…um…" He stopped, not exactly wanting to tell her about Machinos and what his intentions were. "I mean, we're sort of the protectors of that particular dimension in a way, so we need to get back there before any more chaos ensues there."

"Sounds like my kind of place," Hacker muttered under his breath; Jacqueline shot him an icy glare, but Zeny shook her head disapprovingly, her lips tightly pursed. Jacqueline looked over at her, then sighed and rolled her eyes.

Globus looked at the teenage redhead for a few more moments, then she finally sighed once more and replied, "I'll try to restore the pendant in time for you to reach your destination, but remember, these things take time. I can't promise you the quickest results, but I'll try to make it the shortest I possibly can."

"Thank you," Matthew replied, not sure whether to be relieved or not. "So, um, when should we check back with you? In a few hours, perhaps?"

Globus shook her head and looked off to the side. "It'll probably take me at least a full day to get it restored to the point where you can open it in your current location, nowhere else. You may check back with me in about…eighteen or twenty-four hours, then I'll tell you my results."

Matthew looked rather discouraged, but Jacqueline stepped forward and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Matthew," she told him. "Eighteen hours isn't such a long time if we find something else to think about besides what our dimension may be in."

"Besides, time passes more quickly in cyberspace than it does at home," Inez pointed out. "Eighteen or twenty-four hours here is like only two hours in the real world, if you get my drift."

"Yeah, I know that, but—" Matthew looked around at the others, then decided that it was best to settle down and take their advice, for once. "I suppose that you're right," he finally replied, sounding a bit reluctant and discouraged at the same time. "But we're going to check back here as soon as possible, you got that?"

"Yeah, whatever," Jackie muttered, turning around to head out through the tent flaps. "Come on, let's go back to the Coupe. We'll get a new portal at Control Central, I don't really feel like calling in from the Squwak."

"I can do that," Digit replied, flying out after her. Codebird followed loyally, and Matt and Inez, after looking at each other, walked back out, followed by their alternates. Jacqueline was last, pausing only once to punch Hacker in the stomach again, this time just for the heck of it.

"Stupid child," Hacker muttered to himself, as he waited until they had lifted off before walking out and heading back to his own Cybercraft. "One day she'll pay for that…"

"I'm so glad that your brother finally told you, Buzz," Abigail responded happily as the two robots appeared over the top of the hill into the slaves' quarters, Buzz atop Macbeth. Dismounting his horse, the stocky robot approached the well, followed by Delete, who leaned against it, careful not to drop into it at the same time. "Now, then, let me tell you what I have in mind."

She then turned over toward one of the poorly constructed houses and began to head near it. "Come in here. This is my quarters, so I doubt that we'll be bothered at the moment."

Buzz and Delete exchanged looks, then followed her into the house, which was pitch black inside save the small sliver of moonlight shining in through one of the absurdly small windows within. Buzz nearby tripped over the threshold, and Delete had to duck in order to prevent himself from being smacked in the face by the various utensils suspended from the ceiling. Abigail, who appeared to know her way around just fine, ducked under them, then quickly ran over to a nearby table and lit a candle before the two robots could trip over or smack into anything else.

The dull orange light filled the room, giving the two robots a chance to see what was around them—which, considering the fact that Abigail was a slave, wasn't much. The only things that they could see within the cramped space were a table, a stump of a log that was obviously being used as a stool, a few cooking pots hanging from the ceiling (hence the fact that Delete had bumped into them earlier), and a mattress consisted of hay and down in the far corner. Abigail was currently sitting atop the mattress, her hands folded in her lap, waiting patiently for them to take their seats.

Buzz looked around, then finally took his seat atop the stump while Delete sat cross-legged on the floor. Both of them turned to Abigail, waiting for her response as they finally settled and remained silent and still.

"Okay, then, here's what my plan is," Abigail explained to the two. "The only way out of the Machinos grounds as one may see it are the front gates, right?" Buzz and Delete nodded. "But I know better. I've served many times out near the stable, and that's right near the soldiers' quarters, right?"

"So, what are you getting at?" Buzz asked, bewilderedly shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, I came across another opening while I was scrubbing the floor of one of the bunks quite a long time ago," Abigail told him. "It's an open gap that leads out of the wall and past the fence, out into the fields…the gap was too small when I first saw it, but I was assigned to clean the quarters again before the soldiers resettled and I found that something—I don't know what it was, erosion maybe—had caused the hole to become big enough for the average man to squeeze through." She held up her hands in order to show them. "I'm surprised that no one noticed it but me."

"Where's it located?" Delete asked curiously.

"It's under one of the bunks, in the…second one from the left side of the grounds, I think," Abigail responded. "We can escape at the night of the inaugural. That way, since the soldiers are going to be in the main dining hall, we know that we can manage a successful escape without anyone seeing us."

"But wouldn't someone notice us slip out?" Delete asked; this time it was his turn to shrug his shoulders in confusion. "I mean, Machinos is pretty perceptive, I think that he'd catch sight of us the moment that we head for the—"

"He won't," Abigail told him. "Do you know how many soldiers there are in all on the grounds?"

Delete shrugged again. Abigail explained, "The army has grown drastically in three years. I don't know how in cyberspace Machinos does it, but now there are over two thousand in all. Of course, not all of them are going to be at the inaugural, a few of them have to stand guard over the main gates—the _main gates_—" She repeated this as she noticed the looks of profound worry on the two's faces—"So I doubt that Machinos will be able to pick us out in that crowd."

"I think we may have another problem concerning our escape, though," Buzz told her. "I thought 'dat 'da only location for miles was 'dat old windmill out in 'da field. And last time I checked, 'da windmill's path is located directly in front of 'da main gates. And if 'da Riders are as visually accurate as 'dey were at 'da battle of Pompadoria, I doubt 'dat we'll be able to get over 'dere undetected."

"We'll get to that when the time comes," Abigail replied calmly, placing her chin in her hands. "Now, listen…I've managed to find two others who want to help us. One of them you already know, the other I don't think you will. I'll let you meet them on the night before the inaugural, so that we can piece this together as a group."

"Really?"

"Yes. One of them is Revel, the other is Nebulon…he's one of the retired Dark Rider soldiers that hang out around here. I recently told him the exact same thing that I told you, and he said that he was willing to follow through with it. Despite what he's been through he seems to hate Machinos as much as the next person."

Buzz cringed in disgust at the mere sound of Revel's name, but Delete was still curious, being what he was. "How come Nebulon doesn't like him anymore?" he asked curiously, sounding very much like a child.

Abigail exhaled through her teeth. "I asked him the exact same thing," she told him. "He never told me exactly what he saw that made him hate Machinos…he did mention something about how he found out how Dark Riders are born, but that's all that I could manage to get out of him." She shrugged. "It doesn't matter anyway, though. Pretty soon we can leave all of this behind and do what we're supposed to do…outside the gates for once."

"So, we'll take care of 'dis about a week from now, right?" Buzz asked her.

Abigail nodded. "So, that's all we need to focus on for the time being. Now, then—" She began to head back toward her door. "It's getting rather late, so I think that it's best for the two of you to return to your quarters. Delete, while you're there see if you can try to find the gap I mentioned…if you check under the beds it shouldn't be that hard to spot."

"Okay," Delete replied, nodding.

Abigail smiled and showed them out. "Good night," she called out as Buzz mounted Macbeth and rode off down the hill, with Delete following behind, "And good luck. I'll meet with you again in a few days!"

Buzz and Delete rode down the hill in silence for a few moments, until they came to a halt at the bottom and began to trot off toward the main portion of the grounds. Delete looked up at his older brother, then said, sounding rather nervous, "D'ya think that this'll work, Buzzie?"

Buzz was just as concerned as Delete was; he still hadn't made a decision about what he should do—stick with Machinos or go off with the loyal Patriots, and it was haunting him. He didn't want to tell this to Delete, however, so he simply shrugged a shoulder and looked straight ahead at the foundation that lay before them.

"Hopefully so," was all he replied.


	13. The Inaugural

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter XIII: The Inaugural

__

Well she wants to be the Queen  
Then she thinks about her scene  
Pulls her hair back as she screams  
I don't really wanna be the queen…

—Train, "Meet Virginia"  


For the next few days, everything seemed to be ground to an abrupt halt. Abigail was kept busy with the work around the area, and Buzz and Delete had been assigned several other drills (having defeated the Pompadorians, Machinos didn't see any reason to worry about it anymore). Delete had greatly improved, and Nebulon, who had managed to successfully tame Silver Arrow somewhat in the time that he had been left with her, had given him several riding lessons along the open part of the grounds.

Nebulon seemed nice enough, Delete thought. Although he was retired from the army itself, he didn't look any older than Delete himself. He was slightly taller, that was for sure, and had a stiff limp in his walk, but other than that one functioning problem he seemed perfectly fine. Having a dark gray tint in parts of his body and distinguishable from the other soldiers by a simple bronze necklace he kept fastened tightly around his throat, Delete trusted him immediately. 

Upon getting to know him more, however, Delete noticed two things that made him highly uncomfortable with the soldier: the first one was that although he acted nicely towards him (he hadn't spoken yet but had made up for it in friendly gestures), his eyes held a hardened, almost bitter look. The second was that he had long, dark scars running along both shoulders, where the collar began, and didn't end until they reached the middle of the back. Delete hadn't asked about those scars in the time that he had trained with the retired soldier, but now, as the two began to walk toward each other to meet up at the soldiers' quarters, he felt the need to do so. As Nebulon brushed past him, Delete quickly grabbed him by the shoulder, ignoring the feeling of dread as his fingers brushed the scars.

Nebulon turned. "What?" he asked, sounding rather agitated. Delete's eyes widened slightly, and he took a step or two backward, slowly releasing his hand from the robot's shoulder.

Nebulon's voice hadn't been what frightened him; it had been the way it was delivered. Whereas most of his life Delete was normally accustomed to hearing other civilians talk through their mouth (it was the only natural way, he saw), Nebulon's lips did not move an inch. The only source of movement seemed to be the corner of his eye, which twitched ever so slightly in a rather disturbing way.

"What do you want?" Nebulon repeated, as Delete simply stood there for a few moments, dumbfounded and shaking. After a few moments the frightened robot took a breather, then said, rather slowly:

"How—how do you do that?"

Nebulon cocked his head, his eyebrow raised. "Do what?"

"Talk without moving your mouth. I thought only ventril—um, ventrilo—ur—you know, the people who don't move their mouth when they do puppet shows an' stuff."

Nebulon sniggered. "No, I'm not a ventriloquist," he told the robot, turning fully around. "If you truly want to know why I talk like this, it's because I took a rather bad blow to the throat years ago, while I was still a member of the Machinos army. My larynx was cut out, and I ended up receiving these, here." He pointed toward the scars that encircled both shoulders.

Delete shuddered. "How did that happen?" he asked curiously. "A battle or somethin'?"

Nebulon shook his head. "No, I received them as punishment for—something that I shouldn't have seen." He scraped the ground with his foot, looking down at the patterns he drew in the dust. "You seriously wouldn't like to know what I was punished for, my comrade."

"Please tell me. Please?" Delete pleaded, clasping his hands together like an eager child. Nebulon paused in staring at his dirt patterns to glance up at him, then shook his head and continued drawing. "Come on!" Delete continued, grabbing him by the sleeve of his jacket. "I promise that I won't tell anyone! Come on, please? Please?"

"Apparently you're as childish as you look," Nebulon sighed, looking off toward the soldiers' quarters as a group of soldiers entered one of the buildings, laughing like maniacs at Lord knows what. A gunshot echoed in the distance, a familiar sound on the afternoon of a large party. It usually meant cow slaughter or something like that; Delete hadn't bothered to find out.

After a long time, Nebulon finally sighed and said, "Fine," though his body language didn't speak alike. "It's a pretty confusing story, even without full details of what I saw, so I'm going to need a few moments of your time." He went over to the steps and took his seat, while Delete trotted after him and stood in front of him, the eager look still upon his face. Nebulon sighed, then began.

"You see, quite a few years back—about a decade, I think—I used to be one of the Machinos soldiers—a Dark Rider, as the other civilians have dubbed them. Anyway, I was a curious thing, just like you…I had many questions concerning Machinos's private matters, but what I really wondered about was where in cyberspace he was getting all these recruits. Machinos, before we came, had been the only one of his kind—the _only_ one. It would've been impossible for a female counterpart to ever be found."

"But—" Delete began, but Nebulon cut him off.

"I know very well what you're thinking, but no, we're _not_ hybrids," the older robot told him firmly. "Although we may look and act different, our blood is just as pure as that of Machinos's. That made me wonder more, when one of the soldiers finally informed me of this.

"Anyway, one day I was out late practicing with my horse—he was my favorite steed, I think that you might have heard of Jackson—" Delete nodded; Jackson was the horse that he and Abigail had practiced with. "Well, you know what it's like when it's dark out here, no moon, no stars, nothing. It's pitch black, literally. You'd need to be a cat just to prevent yourself from tripping over a stone. Quite bothersome back then, and I suppose that it still is now…although my vision has declined over the years…natural thing, my boy, natural thing.

"So, I tried to lead Jackson back to the stable…but of course I couldn't find it in the darkness. I walked right past it and near the main part of the building.

"Well, you may know that in the back of the building, there's another door—kind of like a cellar door, one of those double wooden jobs that you see near houses. Tornado cellars, I think they're called…" He put his hand to his forehead. "Well, I wasn't looking where I was going and was clumsy enough to fall right through it—it had been opened recently, I guess. I fell down a long flight of stairs and landed square on my head…I saw stars…ugh."

"Must've hurt," Delete commented.

"Oh, it did, mind you," Nebulon told him, nodding and cringing slightly as he relived the memory. "But that doesn't matter right now. Where was I…anyway, I was a little frightened at the time. I quickly picked myself up and looked around, but it was hopeless; the tunnel I had entered—at least I _thought_ it was a tunnel—was just as black as the night outside. I could hear nothing but Jackson's pawing and whinnying at the top of the stairs and my own, panicked breathing.

"I was thinking that maybe I'd just entered another entrance to the mines, and was just about to consider turning around and heading back up the stairs…that's when I heard a long, loud, agonizing scream echo through the tunnel. It filled every corner. It gave me the chills." He shuddered; Delete thought of doing so as well. What a shock that must've been! "So, being the curious thing that I was, _of course_ I had to go down the tunnel. _Of course_ I had to see what was wrong. _Of course_ I had to see what was going on down there to cause such a scream like that."

"I thought that they had torture chambers somewhere around here," Delete replied, shrugging in confusion and shaking his head. "Wouldn't a scream like that be considered a normal happening?"

"Not if the torture chambers are on the other side of the grounds," Nebulon replied simply. Delete swallowed—hard. "So, I went down the tunnel, using my senses to guide me, and nothing else, until I finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel—and don't you dare crack a joke about that."

"Hey, hey, I wasn't!" Delete held up his hands in defense.

Nebulon merely nodded. "I went toward the light, then came out and, seeing what was happening, quickly hid myself behind a nearby rock. It turns out it was Machinos and a Dark Rider soldier…the soldier seemed to be resisting something, as if it were trying to struggle away, but Machinos had his hand tightly around the wrist, so it couldn't move away…even if it tried its hardest. I heard it say something that I found rather unintelligible—it was spoken in Mirror, which was not my native language. It seemed to really tick Machinos off, though, for he then shoved it against the wall in a rage, removed something from inside his coat and…oh, my God…" He covered his eyes with one hand. "I really can't tell you. You don't want to know what he did then."

"Why?" Delete asked, worriedly. "What did he do?"

"You don't want to know," Nebulon replied firmly, glaring at him. "I was temporarily devocalized and scarred physically and mentally from that, and I don't want you to be, too. Not on the night of the big inaugural. And definitely not when we've already got the perfect escape plan in mind. I can't let you know. Ever." He shook his head firmly again. "You're too sensitive. You'll have nightmares for eons."

"Was the soldier okay?" Delete asked, not even noticing that his voice was beginning to shake.

Nebulon shrugged. "I didn't talk to him for awhile after that," he sighed. "He disappeared for a few months…and then…well, I don't know. He wouldn't come near me, and he seemed pretty hysterical. I almost thought that he'd be dragged off and shot or something."

"But was—" Delete began, but he couldn't finish, for it was then that a group of younger soldiers passed by and began treading up the stairs that Nebulon was sitting on. On the way, being what they were, the first one kicked the veteran in the backside.

"_Move_ it, old man!" he exclaimed harshly, before banging open the door and treading inside; the other two that were behind him followed, but without repeating his actions (thank goodness). Nebulon growled, then hoisted himself off the steps and, rubbing the bruised spot where the soldier had kicked it, angrily glared up at the door before beginning to head away, still slightly peeved.

"Nebulon?" Delete called after him, but Nebulon had already left, leaving Delete alone, and rather frightened, at that. Not to mention highly curious…

Buzz knew that the escape was to happen tonight. And he knew that very well. After all, how many times had he gone over it with Delete, and how hard had he been listening to Abigail when she first explained it? Hard enough, he figured, for now it was haunting his mind like a wraith. He hadn't been able to think about it in his bedroom, thus he had gone up to the higher towers and was now sitting inside the glassless window, looking down—not at the ground below him, but what he had held in his hand…namely, the badge that Machinos had given to him not too long after their victory at Pompadoria.

That stupid voice had come back again not too long after the battle, as well. As if he had enough troubles trying to decide; now that voice was splitting him apart more mentally than he was doing to himself. Go out into cyberspace and remain unknown, he thought, or stay with Machinos and become feared by all? _Tough decision_, he thought sarcastically as he tossed the badge into the air like a simple coin, then caught in neatly in the palm of his hand. He sighed and looked down past it, down onto the grounds.

He could see pretty clearly from up there. The grounds looked much larger from his viewpoint; perhaps that was just because he could see more of them. Beyond the fence lay the fields, along with the windmill…he wasn't sure that he wanted to go there anymore. He got an odd feeling around it, a feeling of mortal dread that he couldn't quite place a finger on. It was almost as if something bad had happened there and he could sense it…

_Don't be stupid_, he scolded himself. It was just an old windmill, it was falling apart, and nothing was there but a rickety old table, a tarnished fireplace, and an unfinished floor. So what? He sighed again, then took his thoughts off the old landmark and began to focus them back on the more important issue—loyalist to Machinos, or patriot to cyberspace?

He hadn't been as riled up as Delete had about the battle of Pompadoria. After all, war was just an important role in life, or so he saw it, and it was bound to happen to him sooner or later, physically or mentally. The kids hadn't been much of a challenge compared to the Pompadorians—heck, after what he had been through the Cybersquad seemed like a piece of cake. Even though in his past experiences in his world, the Pompadorians had never been so…well, _tenacious_. Even after Machinos defeated them the first time they had refused to act upon his treaty.

Delete had chosen patriot, it was obvious in that. But he didn't want to go with the flow; after all, he was stronger than Delete was, maybe even stronger than Digit, Inez, Matt, or Jackie. Besides, if he became a patriot he'd just become another victim, he was sure. Machinos hated patriots, and he knew that by experience and expert listening.

It was weird. He hated Hacker with a passion, despite the way he acted. He was strong, yet forced into timid manner by that ugly green cyborg, and over the years he had become sick to death of it. He wanted to act, and he wanted to act as soon as possible. But every attempt of his had ended up in vain, usually ending in defeat or humiliation. Here, however, he was praised by Machinos and looked up to by the other soldiers. It wasn't that hard to choose the latter over the former.

The voice thought otherwise. _Machinos is using you_, it kept screaming. _He's using you_. Buzz had ignored it, sometimes responding in his own thoughts with rather dirty language, and often smirking to himself because he felt that he had bested his mental conscience. But no, it always came back, and when it hit again, it hit with a vengeance. It was almost as if it was so desperate to lure him away from the side of Machinos and into the side of Delete and Abigail, as well as Ruben…

Ruben. He had forgotten all about the clever, determined feline over the past week or so, and needless to say, Ruben had been good company in the time that he was around him. Despite the fact that the two sometimes acted rather cynical, they really did enjoy each other's company. Or at least Buzz did, anyway. But Ruben was a wonderful confidant, and Binky and Paradox didn't look too bad either…well, Paradox kind of did, but that was a different story. Either way, he had to at least be better than Revel…

Buzz's eyes narrowed in disgust. Ever since what Revel had did at the sickbay he had become distant and suspicious of him, his actions, his ways. The vile creature had no pride, no secrecy, and he didn't seem to care at all. All he cared about was…well, Buzz wasn't even going to get into that. It would cause a wave of confusion and emotions. Instead, he shifted his focus back onto what decision he would make…

After thinking deeply for a few moments, he finally sighed, then looked down at the grounds again and, staring at the gold-and-green badge in the palm of his hand one more time, closed his eyes, extended it, and allowed it to drop from his hand, spiraling through the air for a few moments before it splashed into the water below. Slowly, steadily, he got to his feet and faced the inside.

He had made his decision.

It had taken him long enough, but he had made it.

The inaugural began at dusk. Despite the fact that many inaugurals usually evolved high-class guests from around the area, during the time that the guests filed in Buzz and Delete could not sight out anyone from outside the grounds. In fact, all of them appeared to be Dark Rider soldiers—except the two, that is, and Machinos.

When they finally got bored with standing at the doorway, they followed the other soldiers down the hall and into the main dining hall, where the inaugural was to be held. It had changed since the last time that they had seen it upon their arrival—the tables had been removed and set off to the sides to create a dance floor, although almost all of the guests were male. They fixed this by dancing with the slaves and miners, however, most of which were females, Delete noted. He began looking around to spot Abigail in the crowd, while Buzz went off to get some more wine from one of the tables near the window.

Pushing his way past one of the slaves, who was carrying a silver platter of some type of food Delete didn't recognize, the robot looked frantically around for signs of his feline friend, but no mattered how hard he looked, he could not find her. Several dancers shoved past him, unaware of the fact that he was there, but the robot took no notice and continued to look. That's when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Whirling around, Delete came face-to-face with Revel, who still had his hand clamped over his shoulder, a wine glass in the other hand. A rather lopsided grin was on his face as he exclaimed, "Hey, Delete, how are you doin'?"

Delete, suddenly taking Buzz's warning to mind about staying away from him, bit his lip and took a step or two backward, causing Revel's hand to slip off his shoulder. Revel was unfazed; he brought it to his side and took another long sip out of the glass before adding, "I haven't seen you in ages. What's been going on?"

"I—I—I—" Delete stammered for a few moments; he then finally spotted Machinos in the crowd. Deciding that this was a better excuse, he began to turn around. "I've gotta go!" he exclaimed nervously, and before Revel could say another word the robot had run across the floor toward Machinos. Revel was rather hurt by this, but decided that Delete was a shy type and that it would take some convincing to get him to trust him better.

As soon as Machinos saw Delete draw up next to him, he grinned, although it was more cold than warm, as smiles go. "Hello, Delete," he said to the robot, sounding much more friendly than he had at the battle for Pompadoria. If not, it was a definite improvement on his tone. "Enjoying the party?"

"Um…kinda," Delete replied, and this was the truth. He did love parties, especially since he finally got his chance at a fancy party where all the guests had come, for once. But between Revel and the fact that he couldn't find Abigail he was beginning to get highly nervous, not to mention a little frightened; he was like that.

Machinos grinned again. "Good," he merely replied, then walked away. Delete sighed, then looked over toward the other corner of the room, where a group of musicians were currently playing a haunting violin quartet that filled the area with soothing noise. He sighed, then hung his head for awhile and looked back up…in time to catch a glimpse of Abigail.

She had just finished a friendly dance with Nebulon and was now standing against the wall, her arms crossed, as if waiting for something. Thinking that she was waiting for him, Delete quickly sprinted over to her before he lost sight of her again, then stopped beside her, and, noticing that several of the other soldiers were watching him suspiciously, politely bowed and said, taking her hand in his, "May I have this dance, M'lady?"

Abigail laughed girlishly, then nodded and drew herself up to full height, and the two got themselves in the formal dance position. Some of the soldiers were still watching as they slowly took off to the dance floor, Delete making sure to keep his hand on her waist and nothing else, while Abigail was having trouble keeping a tight grip on him, period. The two continued to dance, however, keeping it as casually as possible, until they were out in the middle of the dance floor, where no other living soul could've possibly heard them over the music.

"Listen," Delete said as they whirled around in a circle, "I need to talk to you."

"Yes, I figured that you weren't exactly the formal type," Abigail sighed, as she let Delete lift her up from the ground for a brief moment before setting her back down again. "Does it have anything to do with our escape plan?"

"Yeah, it does," Delete responded, as the two made their way past a soldier and a miner. "I'm a little worried about this. I mean, I crawled all over the ground searching for the hole, until one of the other soldiers asked me what I was doing, and, well…I didn't tell him, even though I have trouble with that, but I just don't know…" He trailed off.

"Trust me, if we can just get away from the crowd, we'll be able to successfully escape without much trouble," she replied. "Nebulon just recently left the inaugural to get our horses." She looked off to the side. "Did you talk to Revel yet?"

"No…Buzzy told me to stay away from him."

"Well, you can't stay away from him for long," she told him firmly. "Revel already knows what's going on, but someone needs to inform him of when it's our cue to leave the party undetected. And since Buzz seems to hate him with a passion, and I need to sneak out first for leading purposes, that leaves you."

"But…but…" Delete bit his lip again and looked over at Revel, who was now leaning against the table near the corner and drinking another dosage of wine. He looked rather defeated for some reason or another, and Delete thought he knew why, but he just didn't know why Revel seemed so…friendly toward him…almost too friendly, it seemed.

Abigail noticed that he was looking at him, and she slowly stopped dancing. "Look, go talk to Revel," she told him, nudging him in the back to get him going in that direction. "I need to get outside the building. Tell him that you'll meet me at the front, near the steps. Okay?"

"Okay," Delete agreed, nodding, then he slowly walked toward Revel. As soon as Revel saw Delete walking toward him, he perked up immediately, setting the wineglass down on the table and walking over toward his direction. Delete knew that he had been drinking, and, knowing that people were more dangerous when they were drunk, kept his distance.

"'Ay, what's goin' on?" Revel asked him, his voice slightly faltered due to the amount of liquor he had recently consumed.

Delete took another step or two back before telling him. "Abigail says that we need to escape now," he said, keeping his voice low as he suspiciously looked around the room at the other soldiers. "We're supposed to meet her at the steps before doing anything else. You go outside, okay? I'm gonna go find Buzzy."

Revel shrugged. "Fine," he replied, then he pushed past Delete and began to head toward the main doors. Delete sighed, secretly glad that Revel was out of his sight, then looked around for Buzz.

It was harder to find him, seeing that Buzz was about two feet shorter than anyone in the crowd, but Delete finally sought him out near another one of the miners. He was against the wall, one leg crossed over the other, along with his arms in a similar position. _How can he be so casual at a time like this?_ Delete thought to himself as he approached his older brother, then tapped him on the head to catch his attention.

Buzz growled and looked up at him, then Delete said, keeping his voice as the same tone as he did with Revel and jabbing his finger in the direction of the doorway, "Buzz, Abigail says that we have to leave now. We're supposed to meet her at the steps…Revel has already gone out. I think that it's time for us to go out too, before someone notices that they're missing."

"Shame," Buzz replied, looking down at the floor as he removed himself from the wall. "And things was just heating up, too." He rubbed his arm, then looked over toward the dancing couples before looking up at him. "Alright, let's go."

"So you finally made your decision?" Delete asked him as they neared the exit.

"Yeah," Buzz finally told him after a short pause. "I did." He sighed, then took another look back at Machinos, who seemed to have little to no clue of where they were going, what they were doing. "I decided to go patriot. It appears 'dat I don't seem to be wanted around here anyway."

Delete grinned. "I'm glad that you chose that, Buzz," he told him. "For a second there I thought that you was gonna turn against us or somethin'. That would've been pretty bad, wouldn't it? I mean, we'd both be on different sides, so one of us had to kill the other in order for there to be a winner…" He trailed off and looked ahead, as they approached the exit to the building and began to walk down the steps.

Buzz grinned weakly, then looked back down at the ground, feeling rather guilty at this time, now, wishing that he hadn't of lied to Delete…lied to Abigail…and, well, he didn't really care for Revel at all, so he didn't add him to the list.

He had lied, but he had had no other choice anymore, after considering the course of previous events since his arrival on the grounds.

Even if he did escape, he had signed a legal document saying that he was now Machinos's loyal general. And no matter what he did, he could not take back what he had signed weeks ago. Machinos still owned him. 

And literally, too.


	14. The Escape

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter XIV: The Escape

The two met Abigail and Revel (much to Buzz's disgust) on the steps a few moments later. Abigail had been waiting rather impatiently for them to arrive, as her arms were crossed and her foot was lightly tapping, but upon seeing them she brightened and immediately straightened up. Revel eyed Delete, then placed both hands behind his back and slowly drew his gaze over to the bottom of the steps.

"It's about time you got here," Abigail exclaimed, still rather impatiently; she then lifted the hem of her dress and began to quickly descend the stairs. "Come on, follow me. I'll lead you to the soldiers' quarters and show you where the hole is."

Delete and Buzz exchanged glances, then quickly followed her down the stairs, Revel behind them, keeping rather closer to Delete than to Buzz. Buzz growled and narrowed his eyes at Revel; he didn't like this at all, but there wasn't time to stop and snap at the soldier. Not until they found the hole, anyway, and Lord and Abigail knew where the heck that was…

Quickly turning to the right, the group of four ran past the looming shape of the stable and began to head toward the soldiers' quarters. Of course, there were quite a few buildings in the area, but Abigail had already memorized the spot where the hole was, it appeared. She halted for a moment to hesitantly look them over, then turned her head to the right, nodded, then began to run toward that building, with the three robots trailing behind her. Quickly going up the steps, she grasped the handle of the moldy wooden door and yanked it open.

It took some force, but the door eventually obeyed her command with a sickening _CREEAKK_ sound. A ray of moonlight wafted over the currently empty, and pitch-black, at that, quarters, revealing the bunks and the poorly tended fireplace near the wall. Abigail sighed, looked around for any signs of danger, then cautiously took a step into the building and looked around, her eyes scanning every bunk in the room—which, considering that the interior of the building was rather large, was a lot. Buzz, Revel, and Delete waited anxiously at the door as she finished her inspection, then nodded and turned around.

"It's all clear," she told them, smiling ever so slightly. "The soldiers residing in this bunk must've been pretty devoted to all want to go to the inaugural."

"Yeah…devoted," Buzz replied, laughing uneasily and placing his hands behind his back.

Abigail looked at him for a few seconds, then finally walked over toward one of the bunks and dropped down onto her hands and knees, beginning to crawl along the dusty floor. Revel, slightly curious, took a step or two forward, then dropped down onto his hands and knees and began to search as well.

Abigail seemed to have it well under control, however. Getting down on her frontside, she finally looked under one of the bunks—the second one from the fireplace, currently doused in shadow—then smiled and quickly raised her upper body from the floor, looking at the two robots as she did so.

"Yeah, it's still here," she replied, sounding rather pleased with herself. "I'm rather appalled that no one's even noticed it yet." She motioned for them to come toward her. "Come over here and I'll show you just what I mean."

Buzz and Delete once again exchanged glances at each other, then walked over toward where Abigail was currently knelt. The cat creature then pointed down below the bunk and said, "Just look under there and you'll have everything all figured out…for the most part, anyway."

The two robots dropped down on their knees, then obeyed Abigail's order and saw, sure enough, a large, gaping, jagged hole about Buzz's width and just a little bit shorter. It looked like a large rat had gnawed right through the wall; looking closer, Buzz could see that the brick wall that separated the grounds from the outside world was gone from the hole as well; he could see a few stalks of gray-colored grass licking the edges of the area, along with the night sky pouring in through the gap.

"We're getting out of here through that?" Delete asked, pointing at the hole.

Abigail nodded and looked up toward the ceiling. "Yes, what did I just _say_," she replied, sounding rather annoyed. "Now look. Nebulon's got the horses over near the front gates. Since he's a retired commander I'm sure that the other soldiers trust him, so he won't have much trouble getting by the grounds. We're going to head along the wall over to the front gates, he's going to give us our horses, and then we're going to run for the windmill like the madman's got us. Understand?"

The other three didn't exactly know what she was getting at, but responded simply by nodding. Abigail looked at them for a few moments, then smiled and replied, "Good. Now, then, let's go."

She then got down completely onto her frontside and, without much trouble, managed to snake under the bed and get herself through the hole, eventually. It took her awhile to pull herself out completely, seeing that the hem of her dress had gotten caught on one of the particularly large splinters in the wall, but even then she did manage to do so. Getting to her knees but still managing to keep low in the grass, she looked down at the others and motioned them to come toward her. "Come on!" she urged, waving her hand toward her face. "Get going! I'm not sure how much longer Machinos plans the inaugural to last."

Revel was the one who got down next, and followed as Abigail had done, without much trouble with the splinters this time around. Delete followed, although he had a little bit of trouble getting through the hole; it wasn't vertically wide enough for him to slip through. Abigail and Revel had to grab him by his shirt collar and yank him out, nearly ripping his outfit in the process. After he landed in the grass, Buzz crawled through, just barely managing to fit himself through the hole altogether. Getting to his feet, he sighed, then brushed the collected dust off of himself and looked up toward the direction of the gates.

Unintelligible shouts could be heard from that direction, but for the most part Buzz couldn't make out any soldiers. He was planning on suggesting to Abigail that all of the soldiers were probably at the inaugural, but he crushed that theory quickly. No doubt Machinos was paranoid; he'd probably stationed a few to guard the gates. Of course, by the way they were shouting, Buzz guessed that they had been drinking vodka, and thus had damaged their eyesight thoroughly for a few hours…

_Man_, he thought to himself, shaking his head in disgust. _Is every single soldier on these grounds obsessed with alcohol_? But, once again, upon thinking of his addiction to the wine earlier on at the welcoming celebration, he shamefully withdrew this, instead focusing back on what they were supposed to be doing at the moment.

If they had indeed been drinking, he guessed, their eyesight would be bad and they either wouldn't recognize them, or manage to make them out but not remember them afterward. When Buzz had consumed alcohol he had absolutely no knowledge of what he had done while he _was_ drunk, and perhaps it was better that way. But, either way they could easily manage to escape undetected…

But then there were the Blind Trackers, Buzz suddenly remembered. If the soldiers didn't get at them, there was a good chance that the Blind Trackers would. Remembering Wielder upon the first time they entered the area, he sure as hell didn't want to repeat that moment. And of course the horses would make vibrations with their hooves, and the Blind Trackers had an acute sense of smell and hearing…

He shuddered. If they didn't get past Wielder, they were done for. No doubt about that.

"Buzz!" a voice hissed.

Buzz, suddenly snapping out of his train of thought, looked up in time to see Abigail standing over him, her arms akimbo and a rather vexed expression on her face. "Buzz, are you going to stall for the next three hours, or are you going to get going? We're supposed to meet Nebulon over near the main gate. Delete and Revel have already gone over there, and I think it's best that we should too."

That caught Buzz's attention; he snapped his head upward and stared at the cat creature, wide-eyed. "What did you say?" he said. "You said 'dat you sent Delete and Revel over toward 'da gate? _Together_, at 'dat?"

Abigail growled and looked up toward the sky. "Yes," she replied through clenched teeth.

"You're crazy, woman!" Buzz accused, sounding rather annoyed himself. "I told Delete a million times 'dat he's supposed to stay away from Revel, and now you're going and sending 'dem off alone toward 'da gates without any intention of what dey're planning on—"

"And _you're_ paranoid," Abigail hissed at him. "What Revel did at the sickbay doesn't amount to anything. I witnessed it as well, you may very well know, and I wasn't affected at all. I actually think it's just fine that Revel feels that way."

"Well, _I_ don't!" Buzz stubbornly snapped back, crossing his arms. "What he did was wrong, and you and I both know it."

"There was nothing _wrong_ about it," Abigail replied, narrowing her eyes. "It wasn't anything serious at all. It was just play, that's all. Just play. I'm sure that he won't do anything too serious to Delete; if he did I'd probably sense it. I lost James due to lack of suspicion, you know, and I don't intend to do it again."

"Play, huh?" Buzz scoffed, folding his arms and glaring at her in return. "Well, I don't know what you was thinking 'dat day, but it looked pretty real to me. I don't want him near Revel, and 'dat's _final_."

Abigail scowled and was about to make another comeback when Delete came running over. At the sight of him both of them immediately stopped bickering and looked over at him as he stopped, then panted a few times and pointed out toward the gates.

"Revel and Nebulon have already got the horses in front of the gates," Delete informed them. "But we're waiting for you guys. Are you gonna come with us or not?"

Abigail and Buzz exchanged glances, a little embarrassed about their previous show of behavior, but merely smiled and nodded, although it did seem rather fake to both of them. Delete didn't notice this, however, and merely smiled in response, then turned around and began to run back toward the gates. "The soldiers are missing. I think that we can get outta here without any trouble after all!"

Abigail and Buzz looked at each other again, not sure what to think, then finally sighed and followed Delete toward the direction of the front gate. Sure enough, Revel and Nebulon were right near the edge of the iron bars, along with Macbeth, Silver Arrow, Jackson, and two other horses that Buzz and Delete didn't recognize at all. One of them was entirely brown save a white splotch on the forehead, and the other was a muscular pinto…

Nonetheless, Buzz didn't care right now; he walked over to Macbeth and mounted her (with a few difficulties, of course; it had been awhile since he had gotten on her when he had consumed a few wine glasses). Delete mounted Silver Arrow, while Revel took the pinto and Abigail took the brown horse. Nebulon finally mounted Jackson, then took one last look at the grounds before narrowing his eyes and spitting in the dirt.

"This night is the last you scorn me," he growled under his breath before slowly turning his head back to face the darkened fields, along with the looming silhouette of the windmill in the distance. "Alright, let's move."

He snapped Jackson's reins, and the old horse began to trot away slowly from the grounds, along with the others following in a tight group. Upon getting out of the light that the windows cast, Nebulon turned around to look at the grounds again, then finally, unexpectedly, screamed "YAH!" and dug into his horse's sides. Jackson let out a whinny, then stepped to the side a few paces before finally charging forward at breakneck speed into the blackness. The remaining four, who had been startled by Nebulon's sudden change of pace, looked back at the grounds, then Abigail finally sighed.

"I suppose we should do what he does," she suggested firmly, then quickened her horse to a canter as well. Revel and Buzz followed, but Delete, who was still rather nervous about riding Silver Arrow at high speed (he had only managed to tame her at a trot), tried to get her to go just a little slower than the others, but being a stallion she ruefully ignored his commands, sooner or later charging directly ahead of the others.

Whatever happened then, Revel seemed horrified. "Delete!" he called into the blackness, but it was too faint for Delete to hear now. Silver Arrow was thundering across the field at high speed, there was no way of stopping her, and he was much too frightened to make any sudden movements. He simply clutched the horse's neck as tightly as he could and prayed that she would stop sooner or later so he could possibly slow her down…

"Delete! Stop!" This time it was Nebulon's voice calling him, and it sounded horribly panicked. "Delete, I mean it! Stop her! Stop her before she veers toward the direction of Heaven's Lake!"

Delete noticed the panic in his tone, although his words were unintelligible, and looked back at Nebulon—and almost got his neck snapped in the process. Silver Arrow was going too fast for him to even move, now…he had to do something, anything, and Nebulon seemed rather desperate…

Then she veered off to the left, away from the windmill and toward a distant grove of trees that seemed to be illuminated by a few shafts of light shining through the night sky, even though it was pitch black elsewhere. He tried to stop her, but it was much too late to do anything now, he knew. He heard Nebulon scream, then he heard Buzz call after him, "Delete! Get out of 'dere! Get out of 'dere _NOW_!"

Amazingly, then, Silver Arrow halted immediately and reared up on her hind legs, in an almost completely vertical position, almost causing Delete to fall off. She whinnied loudly, sounding stone-cold horrified, then backed up a few steps, shook her head, and dropped back onto all fours, still screaming. Delete whimpered, much too scared to let go of her neck even though she had stopped, then finally bit his lip and looked up in time to see what had scared his horse.

What he saw then almost froze him too.

Wielder…

"So, um, what do you wanna do?" Codebird asked as he threw a rubber ball against the wall, allowing it to bounce off and head over in the direction of the hallway. The group—that included the Cybersquad and the Freedom Fighters—were now sitting in the Control Central lounge, unsure of what to do while the time passed, and needless to say they were getting rather restless—all except Zeny, who was on the floor and appearing thoroughly entertained with Digit's little bird Widget.

"Your kid is just too cute!" she exclaimed to Digit as she rolled Widget over, then began to tickle him. "I wish Codebird could have offspring, but you know him…he's always too busy for anything these days, being our scout and all."

"Um…well, to tell you the truth, he's not exactly my _kid_," Digit responded, looking over at her. "I'm a cyboid, so I can't really…you know. He's more like a mini version of me, but if you want to call him that…uh, I guess you can go ahead." He shrugged.

Zeny stared at him blankly, then finally shrugged and resumed to playing with Widget. Jacqueline groaned, then flopped over on the edge of the couch. "This is so boring!" she said through clenched teeth, staring up at the ceiling. "Let's see some action here, for once! Someone do something!"

"Like what? Jump off a cliff?" Matthew said blandly, shifting his gaze over to her.

"Funny, Matthew," Jacqueline replied, her voice emotionless as she got up from the couch. "Very funny. I'm laughing my sides off, here."

"No, really," Matthew replied just as blandly; he then shook his head. "But she's right in a way. Unless we find something to do the time is going to pass pretty slowly, I think."

"Well, why don't we go do something, then?" Zeny suggested, finally picking up Widget and getting to her feet. "Like…I don't know, maybe we could go see a movie or something? You guys have a movie theatre around here somewhere, don't you?"

Digit looked up at her, then shrugged a shoulder. "Sure, we do," he replied, finally getting down from the couch to go find the rubber ball that Codebird had thrown against the wall earlier. "But there aren't any good movies playing there, from what I've heard. Most of 'em are those teenage soap opera things, you know? Those really bad ones about 'some boyfriend broke up with his girlfriend or whatever' things. Really…uh…what was that word again…?"

"Cliché?" Inez suggested, looking over at him.

"Right, right, I knew that," Digit said, nodding. He then squeezed himself under the couch to look for the ball, being careful not to choke on any of the dust underneath there. "So I think that's pretty much out of the question. I don't like those movies…comedies are more my thing."

"Well, that's kind of obvious," Matt told him; he then folded his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling, along with Jacqueline. "So…how about we go out for another Coupe ride? Our last one wasn't too bad…maybe we could stop at an ice-cream store or something."

"Again? No way," Matthew replied, swinging his legs over one side of the couch. "It was way too crowded the last time we went for a ride in that. I fell out the second we opened the door, remember?"

"So, why don't a few of you go?" Zeny suggested, shifting Widget to one arm. "I'd really like to stay here and baby-sit Widget, if that's okay with you," she nodded over toward Digit, who looked at her again with the "he's-not-my-kid" look. Zeny ignored him, however, and said, "Really, you guys can just go without me and…Codebird. Yeah, me and Codebird."

Codebird looked up at her. "Excuse me, what did you say?" he asked.

"Look, Codebird, you used to work in the mines, right?" Zeny told him. "Well, maybe you can pass the time by helping Dr. Marbles out around here. He could use a little more handiwork around the place, if you know what I mean." She looked around the room, then looked back at Codebird, who seemed to be considering.

Before the bird could answer, though, Jackie stepped between them. "Wait, guys," she told them, holding up her hands to halt their speech. "Wait. I just got the greatest idea."

"Oh no, what?" Jacqueline sighed, looking up at the ceiling again. Jackie glared at her, then looked back at the others and tried to continue what she had been saying.

"Okay, you guys—" She gestured toward Matthew, Zeny and Codebird—"You guys want to be civilized again, right?" The trio looked unsure for a few moments, then Matthew finally, yet reluctantly, nodded. "Okay, so, I was just thinking of something. What if we were to teach you how people today act, and then you could just live as civilized people for maybe just one day, until Globus Jayon gets that pendant fixed?" She looked around at the others hopefully. "What do you think about that?"

There was a long pause, then Jacqueline finally replied, "Oh, man, no! I'm already as civilized as I'm going to get, thanks." She pulled one of the pillows out from behind her and slapped it over her face. Jackie glared at her again, then looked back at the others.

"It sounds like a great idea, Jackie," Matthew replied, shrugging a shoulder. "Although I've mostly forgotten what it's actually like to live as a normal human being, I still know a few of the common courtesies of the olden days."

"It sounds fine by me, too," Zeny replied, as she set Widget down on the floor. The little bird muttered something, then picked himself up and began to walk over toward where Digit was standing. "But I never really was social as is, so I have no idea on how to communicate and stuff. Around others, that is."

"Okay, well, I'm going to try and show you how things are here in cyberspace first," Jackie told them. She took Matthew by one hand, Zeny by the other, and began to half-lead them, half-drag them over toward the direction of the hallway. "But first, we need to get you some proper outfits. I'll show you where we keep some spare outfits for our other missions."

Jacqueline removed the pillow from her face, then looked over at them and smirked. "Hmm, maybe this won't be as bad as I thought it was," she snickered, before getting up from the couch and casually following them out the doorway. Digit and Codebird exchanged glances, while Matt and Inez stared after them like they didn't have a clue as to what was going on here.

Delete shrieked in pain as Wielder's massive paw came down on him and raked its claws along his back, leaving more large scars on his little body as he hit the ground. Sobbing in pain, he tried to get up again, but the smell of blood had driven the Tracker wild. With an earsplitting roar, it swiped its paw again, sending another array of marks down Delete's back, ripping the back of his uniform to shreds and exposing his flayed surface.

Shortly after Silver Arrow had run into it, Wielder had sought her and Delete out as foreigners (obviously, being a field Tracker, Wielder hadn't quite gotten the hang of Machinos's older scents) and had immediately sprung to attack. The first blow had struck the horse across the muzzle, and the second had sent Delete off of her back and onto the ground. He had tried to get up and run, but before he could even take two steps forward the Tracker had been upon him.

Revel was horrified, and Nebulon wanted to fight the Tracker, but Abigail held them both back, explaining that if they got near a wild Tracker like this it would rip them apart before they could even spring for it. Buzz, meanwhile, was shaking in mortal terror at what he was seeing. Terror…and rage. Wielder had no right to do this…to his little brother, of all people. Looking back at Nebulon and Abigail, who were still fiercely debating about the behaviors of Blind Trackers, and then over at Revel, who was watching the scene fearfully but frozen in place, Buzz sighed, then looked back at Wielder and decided that, if he was to do anything about it, he had to do it now, before the Tracker struck a fatal blow.

Sighing, he closed his eyes, then quickened Macbeth to a canter across the field. The horse seemed reluctant, and he knew that she should be, but he had no other choice for either of them to make. Delete was sure to be killed if he didn't, for one thing, and for another, with the way Delete was screeching and Wielder was roaring, it would surely reach the grounds…

He shuddered at this thought, and hoped for dear life that it wouldn't. The last thing that he wanted tonight was a Blind Tracker _and_ Machinos on his back.

Soon enough Wielder was within range. Without stopping to think, he stood up on Macbeth's back, unsheathed his sword, then unsteadily leapt off of her as soon as she was within range, landing on the monster's back. Wielder angrily screeched again, then shook his head violently, trying to throw the intruder off.

When he found that he couldn't shake Buzz, he shrieked again, then whipped his neck to one side, in hopes that the sudden movement would shock him. Buzz growled in anger, then finally took his sword and, swinging it in the way Machinos had taught him, left a good-sized gash between Wielder's shoulder blades. Wielder shrieked yet again, this time in pain, a long, loud one; Buzz then jumped down and walked in front of him, grabbing him by the muzzle.

"_Tansemos_!" he exclaimed fiercely, using the word that he had learned from Machinos to keep the Trackers at bay; he then released his grip from Wielder's snout and pushed him backward, lightly. The Tracker, finally recognizing the General's scent, whimpered, then backed away and finally slunk off, his tail between his legs and his head bowed. Buzz huffed, then looked over at Delete, who was still lying on the ground, sobbing in pain.

"It's okay!" he called over to the other three, who were still rather far away from the spot. "You can come over now! 'Da Tracker's gone!"

There was a pause, then the other three horses finally began to gallop over toward the spot where the two robots were currently standing. The stocky robot sighed, then finally dropped to his knees next to Delete and gently stroked him on the head.

"It's fine, Deeds," he said softly, in hopes of calming him down. "Wielder's gone. You'll be fine…you'll be just fine in awhile…"

Delete sobbed a few more times, then finally said, though Buzz could hardly understand it; it had been muffled by the grass and tears. "Buzz…where—where did you l-learn th-that w-word?"

"What word?" Buzz asked.

"Th-that—that word y-you u-used to s-s-send Wielder away," Delete replied, attempting to turn over onto his back but ending up failing miserably. "OWWW! OW!…That command…w-where'd you l-learn it?"

"It's a Machinos command," Buzz heard a voice say behind him. Whipping around, the stocky robot looked up in time to see Nebulon standing over him; he hadn't even noticed his shadow there until the last moment. "It means 'halt' in some other language. I think it's the only language those monsters understand."

The robot then gravely walked over to Delete, then bent down beside him and felt his cuts. Delete whimpered but didn't have the strength left to shriek again. "He looks pretty bad…Abigail, I think I need to take Silver Arrow until we can get him some medical attention. You take Jackson, and put Delete up onto Grant and tie him behind you. We can't make any more stops until we get to the windmill."

Abigail nodded gravely, her lips pursed, then descended her horse and walked over to Delete, gently picking him up. Delete whimpered a few times again, but still didn't have the strength left to truly express the pain that he felt. As the cat creature carried him back over to Grant, Revel assisting, Nebulon looked down at Buzz, his expression serious.

"What?" Buzz finally said after a few moments. "What did I do?"

There was another uncomfortable pause following this. Finally, Nebulon spoke, in a voice as serious and dead as his stare, "Never use that word again. Machinos commands are not permitted in the land of the rebels."

"But…I mean, did you _see_ what Wielder was doing?!" Buzz exclaimed. "'Dat was 'da only way I knew how—I mean, 'dose things are so hard to cut 'troo—and, I mean, I didn't know 'dat I wasn't supposed to use it, but—"

The remainder of his speech was cut off by a few more shouts from the grounds. A few of the lights surrounding the fence then came on, and Buzz halted mid-sentence, staring out at the looming silhouette in the distance for a few moments. Nebulon was looking back at it, too, sporting a very uncomfortable gaze at this time.

"Oh, of all the gods…" he muttered; he then broke off into a run toward Silver Arrow, still standing in a panicked position next to a tree. "Let's go. It won't be long until they figure out that the horses are missing."

Buzz looked over at him, then walked back toward his horse. And although Abigail was in a bad mood as she set the wounded Delete onto Grant, she looked over in time to see Buzz staring back at the grounds…

And his gaze was not to be mistaken. He looked desperate…almost longing…

Like he _wanted_ to go back…

But soon it quickly passed. Abigail cleared the thought from her head abruptly, thinking it was just a mind trick, then mounted Jackson and began to head toward the direction of the windmill, keeping close after the others.


	15. Sweet Revenge

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter XV: Sweet Revenge

"WHAT!" Machinos shrieked angrily, his fists pressed against his desk to the point where the wiring showed through his hands and his wrists threatened to crack. In front of him, a rather young soldier, now thoroughly frightened by Machinos's show of rage, backed up a few steps, then finally fell to his knees, quaking violently and shielding his head. 

"What did you say!" Machinos shouted at him, his lips pulled back and his teeth showing very much like an angry dog's. "Repeat it! _WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY_!?"

The soldier whimpered, his frightened eyes refusing to meet Machinos's gaze, "I—I s-said th-that th-th-the horses are m-missing f-from the s-stable, S-sire, a-and your general and militia are g-gone," the soldier stammered, his voice quaking. "W-we couldn't do anything about it. We—"

"And why not, dare I ask?" Machinos asked, his voice still seething with anger, but much more quiet this time. "Why couldn't you stop them from heading off when you _were perfectly capable of chasing after them_ the moment they reached the iron gates?"

The soldier hung his head, finally admitting to his shame. "W-we were drunk, Sire," he replied quietly, looking down at the carpeted floor, his gaze still refusing to meet the tyrant's. "I know you stationed us to guard the gates, but it _was_ the night of the inaugural, after all, and we were just trying to do something to—"

"Ugh, _damn_ your rum, soldier!" he snapped angrily, although his voice sounded much calmer this time…a little bit too calm, in fact, and the soldier suspected that this was not good. As he uncovered his head and looked up, he could see that the tyrant had left his spot behind the desk and was now slowly walking over toward the fire, which was currently still burning. Machinos sighed, then removed the poker from its stand nearby and gently set it into the coals before looking back at the soldier, his visible eye narrowed.

"You know that this is serious," he said darkly, refusing to turn around. He cast his gaze back on the fire, its light flickering off of him and making him seem more frightening than he already was. The soldier gulped, but made no reply. "Yes…very serious." His eyes narrowed further. "My general signed a legalized document…and now he's gone and betrayed it on his _SECOND WEEK_!" He roared in anger on the last line and thrust his mismatched fists in the air, as the soldier cringed and drew back.

Machinos took a few harsh breaths, his fists clenched at his sides, before finally relaxing and returning to his calm attire. "Of course, this cannot go by unnoticed. Something must be done. My previous general betrayed me, and if my new one is planning on it too, I have something else in store for him." He gritted his teeth. "And my militia…god, my militia…" He placed one hand against the wall and lowered his head, almost vulnerable, it seemed.

There was a moment of silence before he looked back up toward the fire. "I clearly stated that betrayal of the contract resulted in banishment and/or execution," he snarled angrily; the soldier wasn't sure if it was directed at him or Machinos himself. "And if that's the case, he's going to get what he very well may deserve."

He then turned back to the soldier, a dead gaze on his now eerily sunken eyes. "And as for you…you and those slurred friends of yours will, too."

"Y-you're n-not g-going t-to—" The soldier's frightened position returned; he brought both hands to his mouth and looked up fearfully at the tyrant as he loomed over him. Machinos smiled coldly, then shook his head.

"No, no, not at all," he replied calmly, crossing his arms. "I'm not exactly in the mood tonight, if you know what I mean." He smirked; the soldier whimpered, then finally slumped forward, relieved. Machinos turned back to the fire, then slowly took the poker out of the coals; its tip was now searing hot. "But, you _will_ be punished."

Before the soldier could speak another word, Machinos brutally and forcefully struck at him with the poker, managing to leave a burning scar across his back. The soldier howled in pain, then brought himself down in a fetal position and began whimpering softly, smoke beginning to curl up from the wound, reeking of rotting metal. The tyrant ignored his pain, however, and instead tossed the poker aside, stepping over him as he walked out toward the main hallway.

"I'll deal with your friends later," he said as he walked out into the hallway. "But right now there's only one thing on my mind." He narrowed his eyes, then finally, as soon as he was out of the now sobbing soldier's range, his expression softened for one of the first times and he sighed, shaking his head, almost sorrowfully.

"God, why my militia…" he asked quietly.

Ruben sat quietly in front of the campfire, poking at the flaming coals with a stick, then gently setting it aside, taking care not to place it in anywhere a fire could possibly start. Sighing, he laced his fingers together behind his head, leaned up against the tree that he had his back against, then looked up past the mess of twisting branches, up toward the stars. Paradox and Binky had long since nodded off; Binky lay curled up into a green ball near the tent, while Paradox, not wanting to be alone, had snuggled against Ruben, and was now sprawled out on the ground beside him.

Sighing, he reached over and stroked Paradox on the head, then crossed his legs and closed his eyes, preparing to nod off himself, despite how wide awake he felt. He was almost about to succeed in doing so, too, hadn't he heard a familiar voice call from down the tree-coated hill.

"Ruben!" it called, sounding almost desperate. "Ruben, I _know_ you're over 'dere, so don't try it with me 'dis time, okay? We could use a little help, here!"

Ruben recognized that accent; he quickly sat bolt upright against the tree, then, shaking his head as so to clear the oncoming sleep from it, flicked his ponytail back over his shoulders and began to run off in the direction that the calls had come from. Sliding down the hill, nearly falling flat on his back in the process, he finally managed to halt himself at the bottom of the hill, just avoiding splashing headfirst into the dark creek water below.

Regaining his balance, the ebony cat creature looked out across the water, in time to see a group of four or five figures and their horses, possibly; despite the fact that he was of feline heritage, in a way, he couldn't see very well in the dusk, even with the moonlight aiding him. But eventually one's eyes manage to adjust to the blackness, and as Ruben's did he finally recognized the figures in front of him…along with…

"_Mother_!" he cried out in both alarm and joy, before Buzz could even mouth his response; he then quickly ran toward the creek and, not thinking twice of what he was doing, dove in and began to swim across to the other side. Abigail, finally seeing living proof that her eldest son was, indeed, still alive, even after being shot, she clapped her hands to her mouth, then quickly ran toward him, arms outstretched.

The two embraced the moment that Ruben emerged from the water, but with Ruben being soaking wet, of course, this was rather awkward for the both of them. After holding this position for a few moments, they finally drew out, although their hands were still clasped tightly together.

"Ruben!" Abigail remarked, reaching up to stroke her son's mess of ebony bangs. "So you are alive…oh, thank God almighty." She looked up toward the sky, then moved her hands to Ruben's shoulders; her face then contorted to one of slight disgust. "Ruben, your hair is a mess, and you're soaking wet."

"Now you're talking," Ruben replied; his expression then became serious, and he shook his head. "But, seriously, I really did think that you were dead…what with Machinos and such…"

"He took me captive instead," Abigail replied, drawing back at last; she then began brushing at the front of her dress in hopes to clear the water from it. "The moment after you were shot, dear. I was a slave for three years…and then these two came along—" She gestured toward Buzz, who smiled weakly, and Delete, who was still sprawled out across Grant's back, unconscious, bleeding—"And informed me that you were out here. I couldn't have escaped if it hadn't of been for their assistance."

Ruben looked at Buzz, then clapped one fist into one hand; he seemed thoroughly pleased at the moment. "Well done, Fuzz!" he exclaimed, as Buzz stopped short, his face beginning to slowly set itself aflame. "I didn't think you could actually do it, but you didn't fail me, you really didn't—"

"For 'da last time, Ruben, it's _BUZZ_!" Buzz shouted at him, ignoring everything that he had just said, his hands thrust tightly at his sides; he was obviously fed up. "_BUZZ! B-U-Z-Z! YOU CAN HANDLE 'DAT, CAN'T YA? HUH? CAN'T YA_?!" He then sighed, tried to calm himself. "Anyway, yeah, yeah, we did what youse wanted. Now, could you please tell us how we can get outta here and back to 'da Grim Wreaker?"

Ruben stared at him for awhile, his eyes wide, then he shook his head. "Sorry, Buzz," he told the stocky robot, as Buzz sighed with relief—but it was only temporary. "I can't get you back to your destination if you come from another dimension. The Portal of Forty is the only thing that can possibly do that."

Buzz's relieved look faded, and another one, one of both mixed fright and anger, took its place. Angrily glaring up at Ruben, he accusingly jabbed his finger in the direction of the cat creature's face and said, his voice just as furious as his stare, "_What_! Ruben, you said 'dat if we'd follow 'troo on your stupid plan, you'd let us go back to our own world! And now we've followed 'troo on it, and now you're denying 'da fact 'dat _we_ should get something in exchange!?" He growled angrily, then removed his hat from his hand, slammed it on the ground, and stomped on it in a rage before finally kicking it aside. "You _lausiges ficken_ cat, you—"

"Cut this _OUT_!" Nebulon finally barked, seizing Buzz by the shoulders and easily whisking him off the ground. The shorter robot kicked and struggled, but his attempts against the taller, stronger soldier proved futile. Finally, with a defeated sigh, he relaxed; Nebulon dumped him on the ground before saying to him, sounding calmer than he had, "Don't fret over this. Ruben doesn't mean what he said." Ruben raised an eyebrow. "It will all come in time, sir. It will all come in its due time." He then looked up at the others and added, clasping his hands together, "Now, then, I believe that we've got a job to do, now, plan-wise."

The others—Ruben included—stared at him, the looks on their faces suggesting that they had vague understanding of what he was talking about. Nebulon, figuring that they would react this way, replied, rather slyly as he drummed the tips of his fingers together, "Listen, we've been wanting to avenge the lost souls of Fatherboard and slay Machinos for eons, now, haven't we?" Abigail, Ruben, and Revel nodded; Buzz remained on the ground, still unaware of what was going on, while Delete…well, Delete hadn't heard a thing as it was.

"Well, it just so happens that I have come up with an idea," he purred, looking around at the others standing before him. "It won't be overthrowing Machinos, exactly, or even slaying him—although heaven hope we should—but it'll be close enough to avenging the lost souls and getting back at Machinos for his own deadly sins in the process."

Ruben now seemed thoroughly interested, he placed his hands on his knees and leaned in closer. "Yeah?" he asked, almost eagerly. "So, what exactly did you have in mind?"

Nebulon smiled. "Revenge," he said, before adding on to his sentence. "Lead me back to your campsite," he told the cat simply. "I'll explain the plan once we get away from Machinos's drill grounds."

Ruben straightened back up, then nodded eagerly and, reaching toward Grant, easily took the horse's reins in his hand and began to lead him toward the stream, seeing that Delete was much too sick to even sit up. As the others followed, stepping over Buzz (who was still lying sprawled out on the ground) as they did so, the short robot looked up at them, then sighed and looked down toward the ground.

If they ever found out…

"So…tell me again why you're making us wear these?"

"So you can look good before the public. Now cut it out, Matthew, and let me straighten your tie, okay?"

Matthew groaned and rolled his eyes as Jackie reached up toward his tie, easily managing to straighten it out. In truth, he didn't even know why he had actually agreed to try this out. Jackie had insisted upon them going back to her bedroom for awhile (time passed quicker there) and showing them how people dressed nowadays, and she was starting by showing them what people in that day wore for fancy occasions. Matthew recognized the outfit itself, but he didn't know that they had gotten so stuffy…and he certainly didn't know that they had made ties out of a stiffer fabric, not to mention tighter…

"I can't believe that people actually wear these," he sighed, looking down at his outfit. "And you actually say that things like these can come cheap?"

Jackie shrugged. "Sort of," she told him. "I think that you have outfits like these back in your day, so what's the big deal of wearing it?"

"The tie," Matthew simply replied, tugging on the edge of the blasted clothing item. "It's a little…tight, don't you think?"

"Well, that's what it's supposed to be like," Jackie replied, shrugging. "Today, a tie has to be around your neck and perfectly straight, free of stains, or else you'll be classified as sloppy. That's pretty much what happens around fancy occasions…and I think some job interviews, but I'm not sure."

"Well, I kind of like it," Zeny, who was standing a few yards away from Matthew, replied. She was wearing a fancy dress that Jackie had found in the closet: a lavender one with blue trim and a silk vest. Twirling around, she came to a stop, then said, "It seems that women can be a lot more comfortable in their clothing than men, which is good."

"In what way?" Matthew scoffed.

Zeny glowered at him. "Ever try wearing a corset?" she challenged. "Or perhaps a petticoat? Or maybe even a hoop dress?"

"All right, all right," Matthew replied, holding up his hands in defense. "I get it now, I get it." He sighed, then looked down at the newly polished black shoes that were currently on his feet. "Wearing shoes is so…weird, now. I mean, back in the forest we just used to get around without shoes or socks…now I seem accustomed to it."

"Yeah, and you were also wearing crudely-made clothing from animal skins," Jackie replied sarcastically. She let go of his tie, then looked toward the direction of the closet door, which was currently closed. "Come on, Jacqueline, you've been in there for twenty minutes! Let's see how you look."

There was a momentary silence before Jacqueline's voice finally replied, from behind the door, "No way. There is absolutely _no way_ I am going to come out of the closet door wearing something like _this_."

"Aw, come on!" Matthew teased, looking over his shoulder at the door. "I told you that this would be fun; now come out of there and let us see how you look!" He snickered to himself before continuing, trying to hide the mirth in his voice. "I'll bet you look great."

"Actually, I'm having trouble figuring out why I even agreed to this in the first place," Jacqueline shot back. "I just came in here to see you guys embarrass yourselves by wearing that clothing, not for _me_ to embarrass _myself_."

"Oh well," Matthew replied, shrugging his shoulder even though Jacqueline apparently couldn't see it. "You agreed to it, now you have to do it. Just show us what you look like for a few seconds, and then you can leave, okay?"

"Ugh, Matthew, as soon as I get my hands on you I'm going to…okay, fine. But only for a few seconds, and Matthew, if you laugh you're going to be riding the Pain Express."

"I won't," Matthew replied innocently.

"Okay, then." She then threw open the closet door and stepped out, showing them that she was wearing a fancy ballroom gown, along with a choker necklace and a tiara (much to her disgust). Matthew began to snicker again but quickly covered his mouth with his hand as the girl shot him a threatening leer. She then turned around and began to head back toward the closet.

"Hey, hey, hey, why are you leaving so soon?" Matthew replied, now grinning from ear to ear. "Come back here and let's dance, shall we? You certainly seem to be dressed for the occasion."

"Shut _UP_, Matthew," Jacqueline said threateningly; she then slammed the door to the closet shut, almost causing a nearby picture to fall off the wall. Jackie sighed, then crossed her arms and looked up toward the ceiling.

"Some people just can't appreciate clothing," she sighed as Matthew looked down at his shoes, then took a step forward in them and cringed slightly.

"Not only is the tie too tight, but the shoes are too tight, too," the boy groaned. "How on earth do you manage to walk in these—"

"Hey, Earthlies!"

Jackie and the others turned in time to see Digit's face appear in Jackie's bedroom mirror. Waving at them the moment that they made eye contact, the bird then informed them, "Listen, I think that Globus Jayon has the power restored to that amulet thing. She called awhile ago. I think that we need to go back to Castleblanca and see what she has in mind for us."

"Wow," Jackie exclaimed, impressed. "She managed to do it that fast?"

"Well, you spent three of your hours trying on clothing," Digit replied, a trace of sarcasm in his voice. "What do you expect?"

Jackie leered at him for a few seconds, he smiled back weakly; then the bird's face disappeared and a portal appeared in its place. Jackie sighed, then quickly ran toward it and jumped in, followed by Matthew and Zeny, who were still wearing the fancy clothing, and finally Jacqueline, who had changed back into her regular outfit and had banged open the closet door at hearing them enter. She was just in time, too—the portal had begun to fade the moment that she entered it.

Landing in Control Central a few moments later, Matthew and Zeny looked down at themselves, then finally sighed and rolled their eyes, while Jackie picked herself up from her awkward landing on the floor and ran over toward Digit, who was at the entrance to the ship landing area. At seeing her, he quickly ran toward her, then pointed toward the Coupe; Matt, Inez, and Codebird were already inside it, waiting almost impatiently.

"Everything's ready to go," he told them eagerly. "Now, then, let's go before anything else gets in our way." He then looked at Matthew and Zeny. "Guys, I really think you should've changed your clothing before you entered. That looks pretty inappropriate for this situation."

"Well, it couldn't be helped," Matthew told him, crossing his arms in agitation. This time it was Jacqueline's turn to snicker. Matthew leered back at her, then looked back at the bird. "Let's go."

As soon as the sun finally set over the horizon, the silence in the air was shattered by the faint clopping of hooves on the dirt ground as a party of seven figures, all of them on horses, neared the windmill. On in that direction, of course, was the Machinos grounds, and that was the particular location that the riders were heading off to tonight. Almost eagerly, the party waited at the windmill until the pink and purple surrendered to the darkness of the night sky, then the horse in front finally ran forward, quickening to a canter, across the field. The others followed it, single file, all of them keeping the exact same pace as the leader.

"So—are you—sure we—have to—do 'dis?" Buzz asked, keeping his words in pace with Macbeth's long strides. He was behind Nebulon, the third position in the line; Ruben was at the front, and Delete, who was still feeling rather weak, was at the back. (They had managed to stop the bleeding and to somewhat cure the wounds before he could slip off into death, but it was a close call. Delete had to be laid down for eighteen hours straight before he finally recovered, even somewhat.) Abigail was riding beside him, as to make sure that he or Silver Arrow didn't go out of line, especially after what happened last time.

Nebulon turned to look at Buzz. "Yes, we do," he replied, sounding gravely serious. "We spent all last night planning it; we're not about to back down on it now."

"But what if—it doesn't—go 'troo?" Buzz replied. "Machinos isn't—stupid, you know."

"I know he isn't," Nebulon replied. "I've been with him longer than you. However, that means I know every inch of the grounds like the back of my hand." He released one hand from the reins and held it up to represent this. "We will _not_ be caught by Machinos, trust me."

"But, we _are_ taking a serious risk," Ruben told them, turning his head to look back at the both of them as well. "Even if we do manage to get inside the grounds we'll be hopelessly outnumbered, which means we have to move quick. No hesitation, no thought. Just destroy anything that's within your reach and leave it at that."

"But even so, your plan seems a little…far-fetched," Buzz replied, slowing Macbeth down to the point where she didn't heavily bounce with every stride. "Are you sure that 'da horses can actually withstand jumping over 'dat fence? It's well over ten feet, by my calculations."

"I know that," Ruben replied hotly, "And I know that they can manage it…excluding Buttercup, of course. If Macbeth can leap over a 30-foot chasm without even stumbling at the edge, I'm sure that she can handle a 10-foot wall."

Buzz sighed and rolled his eyes, but quickly snapped back to attention as the walls of the grounds came closer. He knew of Ruben's plan; he had made it pretty simple, despite all the risks that they would be taking in the process. What they had to do was this, and merely this: get into the grounds, wait a few moments, then finally run wild, burning, destroying, and mangling anything that they could successfully manage to get at. They then were to leave before Machinos himself came out and dealt with them one-on-one—which, of course, meant that they would lose a few of their major body organs if they didn't follow through on it correctly. No soldiers were to be killed, of course; Ruben was merely doing this to get Machinos angry with them. Why, he didn't know. How they could actually get away with this, he wasn't sure. Whatever was to happen…he wasn't sure yet.

"We're almost there," he heard Ruben call to them, and the cat creature quickened his horse's pace to the breaking point, leading it directly toward the stone wall. The others followed suite although some were reluctant (Buzz included). "Not yet…not yet…not yet…_JUMP_!"

At this, the horse he was riding immediately soared off the ground, ascending into the night sky, then fixated its body horizontally and began to descend behind the top of the stone wall. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. The others were appalled, but, of course, they knew that they were to be next.

Nebulon was the second to follow. As his horse fell behind the boundaries of the wall, Buzz successfully managed to get Macbeth over, followed by Revel, then Paradox, then Abigail, and lastly, Delete. The robot almost didn't make it, but luckily Silver Arrow had received an extra boost by kicking off the edge of the stone wall. She landed about three yards from the other cluster of horses, then halted, snorted, shook her head, and obediently allowed Delete to guide her over toward the remainder of the group.

Now that all the horses were together, Ruben immediately began to explain. "Now, then, take to mind that there are absolutely _no_ boundaries here. Here, you are allowed to wreck, plunder, destroy, steal, and in other words wreak complete and total havoc. What your method is, I don't care. If you have to injure the soldiers, do so, just _don't kill anyone_. This is just an act of revenge, not a full-string battle."

"Ruben, I don't see why you made me come here," Paradox whimpered, eyeing the grounds with terrific fear. "I—I hate this place. Y-you know that."

"I know, 'Dox, I know," Ruben told him softly, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder. "But just remember, you're doing this for the good of everyone in cyberspace as we know it. You want to avenge the deaths of Jamie, Tom and Anna, don't you?"

At the mere thought of the deceased Felinus family Paradox almost broke down into tears, but restrained himself and instead only allowed a few to run down his cheek. "Uh-huh," he finally managed to choke, nodding.

"You know, I don't even see how we're avenging anyone," Revel told him fiercely. "If we're not killing Machinos or his soldiers, what brings you to the thought that we're actually _avenging_ our perished loved ones?"

Ruben narrowed his eyes. "Don't question my authority, Revel," he growled in response. "I may be only fifteen, but I know a great lot about organization. And let me tell you this now: this is only phase one of what I intend to do." He then turned his back to the soldier. "No further questions."

Revel scoffed, but remained silent thereafter. Nebulon then backed his horse up against the wall, along with the others, as they remained in place, staying entirely still except for the impatient pawing and snorting of their horses. They waited in this position, waited and watched, until at last a group of soldiers came out.

Ruben squinted. "Are they drunk?"

Buzz looked out at the group, then, after a brief examination, turned to look at Ruben. "Nah, I think 'dey're sober," he told the cat. "'Dey seem 'ta know what 'dey're doin'."

"Alright," Ruben said, grinning; backing his horse up as far as it could go.

He then, much to the shock of the others surrounding him, issued a loud battle cry from his throat and charged forward at high speed, immediately attracting the attention of the Riders nearby. Their eyes wide, they turned around to stare at the cat, who then veered in another direction and made a sharp U-turn around a tree, nearly colliding with the lot of them in the process.

Nebulon was the first to recover from the shock. Although he couldn't issue a battle cry from his artificial larynx, he did charge forward, heading in the direction of the stable. The others looked over in time to see him smash headlong through the doors, snapping their hinges off rather loudly, then, no less than a minute later, an entire posse of horses came charging out from the open doorway, followed lastly by Nebulon, who whooped and threw both hands in the air in victory.

Revel grinned, then charged forward next, this time heading toward the front doors. Although they had been built very strong, the muscular pinto—whom Revel was currently riding—was stronger. Without hesitation (Ruben had said to do everything without second thought, after all) the mighty steed galloped up the stairs, then, without stopping once, smashed headlong into the front doors, provoking a deafening sound and causing several chunks of limestone and mortar to fall to the ground. The horse smashed into the doors again, and this time it was successful—the wood splintered and broke, and as the beast reared its head, the entire thing nearly came crashing down. More wood splintered and broke, hitting the floor in chunks, as the horse—Revel still atop it—thundered inside the building, galloping at high speed along the corridors and, of course, attracting the attention of both the Dark Riders and Machinos alike.

Back on the outside of the grounds, meanwhile, Abigail smirked. "Can't let the men have all the fun," she said to herself, then, with a loud yell, galloped forth, joining her son and the other two Riders. This left Buzz, Delete, and Paradox, all of whom were still standing at the edge of the wall, looking as if they didn't have the slightest idea on what to do. Finally, Buzz sighed, then stepped forward.

"Okay," he finally said to himself, "Let's do 'dis. Buzz, you can do 'dis."

He then backed his horse up and, yanking on Macbeth's reins, gave a battle cry of his own. The horse reared up, then charged off after the others, disappearing behind the trees along with Ruben. Delete looked out after him as he departed, then finally whimpered and drew back, trembling as he held the reins.

"I—I don't wanna do this," he said, sounding greatly mortified. "I can't do this. It's not right…it isn't right…"

Paradox, who was standing next to him, looked over at him, then back at the grounds, which were now beginning to light up in flame; apparently Ruben or one of the others had gotten hold of the kerosene lamps. "Y-you're right…" The robot slumped forward, resting his head on the horse's neck, trying his hardest to keep control over himself. "But w-what other choice do we have? Ruben's c-counting on us. W-we c-can't b-back down n-now."

"I know," Delete sighed, looking forward at the flaming grounds. In the background he could hear Ruben's whoops of triumph, along with the surprised and angry shouts and curses of the Dark Riders. He shook his head. "You know, back when I was with Hacker I used to love wreaking havoc on stuff. I'd always do it, partially because I didn't want to get in trouble with him, of course—but sometimes I simply loved it. But it wasn't like this." He shook his head again as he looked at his surroundings. "Never like this…"

"But what do we do?" Paradox whispered timidly.

Delete looked around some more, then finally took a deep breath and sat upright, his expression serious. "We do the only thing we can do," he told the other robot, but at that precise moment Buzz, atop Macbeth, of course, came shooting by them in a black-and-white blur. "Buzz!" Delete cried frantically after him, in hopes that the robot would hear him, but Buzz could hear nothing.

The stocky robot grinned, then made a sharp turn around the side of the main building and began to head toward the direction of the front doors, the bottom now broken open by what Revel had done earlier. Deciding that he would join Revel inside the building instead of remaining outside with Ruben, Nebulon, and Abigail, he forced himself and Macbeth in through the splintered opening and began to gallop at high speed down the hallways, which were already thoroughly trashed thanks to Revel.

_For someone I hate with a passion, he does a pretty good job_, Buzz thought to himself as he slammed Macbeth into one side of a particular door, causing it to snap off its hinges and collapse with a loud _SCRRACCK_. Shifting his and the horse's balance back to neutral, they continued their descent down the hall, every now and then stopping to break down one of the doors or to rip something from the walls. He had ridden past Machinos's office and was just about to turn the corner when something shot out and grabbed him.

"GAH!" he yelped in shock as the thing snatched him off Macbeth, then dragged his little body down to the point where he was suspended about two or three feet from the ground. Trying to get his breathing rate back to normal, he looked down at his shadow, then finally looked up, straining to see the thing that was keeping hold of him. Of course, given his anatomy—that and the figure seemed to be of a pretty tall height—he couldn't see a thing.

"Well, well, well, we're certainly being rebellious tonight, aren't we?" a voice purred; a voice that Buzz knew very well. A trickle of mortal dread ran down the robot's spine, and he froze entirely as the figure strengthened its hold on his sides, then quickly turned him around, so that they were face-to-face. A figure now stood before him, an angry figure, and, of course, to Buzz it very well may have been death itself.

"I had a feeling that you'd return," Machinos growled, baring his back molars angrily as his ice-cold glare burned into Buzz's. The stocky robot could feel Machinos's hands beginning to close on his sides. "Pity that you've wandered right into the enemy lines, hmm?"

Buzz tried to respond, but found that he could not; Machinos's grip was too great and, needless to say, it was leaving him in a state of unspeakable pain. All that he could manage to force out of his throat were a few agonizing choking sounds.

"Answer me, you imbecilic THING!" Machinos shouted at him, but Buzz only frantically shook his head; he still could not talk. Machinos threw him to the ground, then, before Buzz could even inhale again, the tyrant had seized him by the area below his mouth and lifted him up, then his hands sought out his lungs and, without further ado, Machinos's grip tightened around his chest and began to squeeze him like nothing else.

"If you want to remain intact any longer, I suggest that you provide a fully logical explanation for this," Machinos said angrily, through tightly clenched teeth; Buzz could feel the air slowly beginning to deflate from his lungs. "You know very well that I can crush you like a tin can."

The stocky robot knew that he wasn't kidding; the pressure that was now being placed on his lungs was unbearable. Gagging, he tried to withstand the pain, but now it had reached its breaking point. From within his chest something hissed and slowly began to crumple; Machinos was squeezing the life out of him as easily as one does to an empty soda can. Finally, he shook his head and managed to choke, "_It's…not…what you…think_…"

There was a pause, then Machinos's fists finally opened, allowing Buzz to drop to the ground yet again. Gasping for air, his half-collapsed lungs making synthetic crackling sounds, the robot took a few moments for his breath to return to him, then he finally panted, looking up at the tyrant, "I-it's not what you think it is, Sire. Really, it isn't."

Machinos folded his arms over his chest, his face expressionless. "You really expect me to believe that, after betraying me, leaving the grounds, and coming back here with a posse of civilians equivalent to that of _pond scum_, you're still on the side of the tyrant?" He laughed cruelly. "I think not."

"I—I was bluffing!" Buzz replied, cold sweat dripping down one side of his head. "I swore to you 'dat I'd remain loyal, Sire, and 'dat's exactly what I intend to do." He didn't even notice how pathetic he was sounding at this time. "Just please…don't—don't kill me."

Machinos laughed again. "Kill you? I think not." He turned around and began casually walking to the opposite end of the room. "I _am_ rather peeved by what you've done, General, but it can easily be forgiven…" He smiled coldly. "With a few _vows_, that is."

"Vows?" Buzz asked, staggering to his feet.

"No one knows that you were bluffing the entire time during your brief absence, is that correct?"

"Um…uh, no, no, I don't think so."

"Perfect." The tyrant clasped his hands together, grinning evilly. His expression then turned solemn, and he whipped around to face the trembling Buzz, now standing near the open doorway. "Listen to me, General. I shall spare you once, and only once…no exceptions. You are to go back with the remainder of your posse, and frequently collect data on their ideals. You are then to report to me, and perhaps I shall _consider_ removing this violation from the contract."

"Th-thank y-you, sir," Buzz replied, his hands clasped together nervously in front of him.

"We shall speak nothing of it," Machinos replied. He then jabbed his index finger toward the destroyed hallway. "Now leave before I reconsider!"

Buzz nodded vigorously, then quickly turned around and stumbled out of the doorway, almost landing on a patch of broken glass, then staggering around the corner just as Revel's pinto came charging down the hallway. Revel, of course, was atop it, holding a shred of painted canvas tightly in one hand. He halted when he saw Buzz, however.

"There you are!" he remarked, bringing the pinto to a halt. "What happened back there? I saw Macbeth galloping down one of the hallways, but you weren't atop her, and I figured that something was wrong." Buzz looked up at him, almost sorrowfully. "_Is_ something wrong?"

Buzz was silent for a few more moments, then he shook his head. "No, nothing's wrong," he sighed. He then quickly changed the subject, noticing Revel's look of suspicion. "Do you know where Macbeth went?"

Revel nodded. "I saw her near the fountain," he informed, pointing down one of the corridors. "She had apparently tired, I suppose; she was drinking out of it when I last passed her. It shouldn't be too hard for you to bring her back." He looked up toward one of the stained-glass windows. "Hey, d'ya think I should exit by crashing through one of these windows, or what?"

"Do what you want," Buzz muttered; he then began to walk down the selected corridor just as he heard a loud, triumphant whoop, then glass shattering behind him.


	16. Spark of the Revolution

****

ALTERNATE REVOLUTION

Chapter XVI: Spark of the Revolution

"You're not kidding?" Ruben was greatly surprised the next evening, while the seven members of the group, along with Binky, were currently sitting around a campfire, the evening sky overhead making the entire area seem eerily dark. "Machinos _seriously_ wants to destroy another cybersite just because we busted in onto his grounds and destroyed a few things?" He threw his arms up in the air. "That's madness!"

Nebulon, who was seated next to him and was currently nibbling on a piece of hardtack that Abigail had managed to throw together the night before, looked up toward him and nodded solemnly. "Yes," he replied. "I overheard the news shortly after leaving the grounds—I was the last one, you know, due to the fact that I let my horse go with the other horses I released. Took me forever to find him…"

"Ruben's right," Revel said, standing up. "We can't let Machinos get away with this. We just can't. Hundreds of innocents shouldn't have to die at our expense."

"Which cybersite is he planning on attacking, anyway?" Abigail asked Nebulon, shifting herself to the side position.

Nebulon looked over at her. "Serentia," he told her. "Even though it's possibly one of the farthest sites from the Machinos grounds besides Pompadoria—which he already very well destroyed—he's already ready and willing to destroy it."

"But _why_?" Ruben demanded, slamming his hands into the dust.

The aged robot sighed. "Possibly because it's located near the forest…directly near where your homestead used to be, Ruben. It was also the exact same location of the time your father saved the General." He lowered his head and shook it. "I promised myself I'd never go back there…I suppose that promises must be broken, now."

At hearing those last spoken words Buzz, who was sitting farther away from the others, made a loud hurking sound, then bit his lower lip nervously, looking off to the side. He had refused to tell Revel earlier, and, after finding Macbeth and departing from the grounds, along with the others (who had already done a very considerable amount of damage) he had shunned away from everyone who wanted to speak with him…including Delete, who seemed rather upset by this. It had worn off after a few hours, however, and now Delete was sitting around the fire along with the others, looking very nervous and also very afraid.

"Figures he'd try to reopen my scars," Ruben growled angrily, his eyes narrowing as he stared straight ahead. He then looked back at Nebulon. "Isn't there anything that we can do? Like Revel said, we can't just let him get away with it—it's unfair."

Nebulon stared at him helplessly, then finally replied, lowering his head, his voice grave, "Well, given the circumstances there's only thing we _can_ do." He raised his head and stared directly into Ruben's eyes. "We have to track down Machinos's army and halt him before he kills any more innocents."

"But…but that's impossible," Delete finally replied, rather timidly. "We're only a group of seven, maybe eight…and he's got about a million soldiers on his side, maybe more. He'll—" The robot choked back a frightened sob. "He'll _kill_ us!"

Ruben nodded, one of his fingers in his mouth, in thought. "That's true…"

Nebulon was thinking, too. Finally, after a few moments, he finally reared his head again and said, sounding rather excited, "Wait—there _is_ a way to fix that problem. Remember what we did? The raid last night?" A few of the group nodded. "Well, I clearly told you that this was only phase one of my plan. Delete's little suggestion brings phase two to mind."

Binky, currently sitting beside Ruben, raised an eyebrow. "And, that is…?"

"We revolt." He smacked his fist into his open palm, causing the two sitting on either side of him—namely, Ruben and Abigail—to jump in shock. "That's exactly what this whole damn dimension _needs_—a revolution. A stand against Machinos. Of course, being one of his group I couldn't do it, but now that we're outside the grounds and free men, we have the freedom to do whatever we want."

"Wrong, Nebulon," Paradox replied solemnly, looking over at him. "Machinos still controls us, no matter where we go. Remember the Cyber-Constitution?" He hung his head and stared down at the dirt. "Machinos has complete control over it."

Nebulon scoffed. "Where's your sense of adventure, Paradox?" he asked the robot, who made no response. "The way I see it, we don't need to follow the Cyber-freaking-Constitution any longer. Not if we're going to revolt. In order to do that we need to act _against_ the laws, not follow them." He shook his head. "I swear that you knew better years back. Who taught you?"

Paradox looked up at him, as his eyes glistened with newfound tears. "You know who taught me," he whimpered, before drawing his knees to his chest and dropping his head in-between them. Ruben sighed, then looked up at the sky before looking back at Nebulon, a rather suggestive leer upon his face.

"God, it's going to take him forever to get over this," the cat creature sighed, propping his chin in one hand. "Too bad that Inez girl isn't here…she'd probably raise his spirits a little more."

At the mention of Inez Delete withdrew his gaze from the fire and set it down off to the side, toward the dirt. Despite all that he had been through with the other people (if you could call them that) in this dimension, he still felt greatly homesick. Sure, Hacker picked on him constantly and he was always getting hurt, but at least it was only mild hurt. Not like this dimension, where the hurt hit you full force and wouldn't leave you alone until the moment you fell into unconsciousness. It was also doing something to Buzz—Delete wasn't sure what yet, how was he to know what had happened on the night of the raid?—but either way the robot was greatly concerned. He now looked up at his older brother, who was sitting up on a small hill, atop a pile of dead leaves, with his back to them, staring at a nearby tree trunk.

"Buzzy?" he whispered softly.

The stocky robot made no reply. Delete waited a few more seconds, then finally got up from his spot around the fire and trod over to where Buzz was sitting. He could now see that the robot had a horrendous expression of misery upon his face, and of course Delete didn't like to see that. Placing his hand on Buzz's head, he asked again, "Buzzy, what's wrong with you? You've been so quiet, an' I'm so worried…" He then brought his hands together nervously.

Buzz looked up at him, a blank, expressionless stare. He was silent for a few moments, then he finally replied, "Dee-Dee, I want yas to leave me alone."

"But, Buzz—"

"_LEAVE ME ALONE_!" The robot shouted this at him, which focused the attention of the rest of the group onto them. Slightly humiliated, Buzz lowered his head (if he could possibly do that) and looked away.

Delete made an unintelligible whimpering noise, then clambered back down toward the fire, where the others were now staring at him and Buzz, who had now buried himself under the leaves as best he could and was visibly shaking. Abigail shook her head.

"Must've been something back on the grounds," she sighed, then reached for a stick nearby to poke at the flaring coals. "I've heard nasty rumors of what Machinos does to his soldiers there. _Nasty_ rumors."

"Aye," Nebulon replied, unsmiling, his eyes cold. Delete knew that he was referring to what he had seen on the grounds that had caused him to lose his larynx, but now was not a good time to join in on their conversation. Sighing, he looked down at his sword, currently lying in the dirt beside him, remembering what had happened the night Machinos had first given it to him, the night of the party:

"_You're like the son I never had_…"

He swallowed; whenever that sentence echoed through his head it always made him feel horribly guilty about abandoning Machinos in the first place. Machinos was the one who had given him the outfit and the sword, after all…and even though he was cold, of course, he still seemed to somehow care for Delete, although this was doubtful in the others' cases. The young android didn't understand why. There had to be a reason why Machinos was acting so cold. There was a reason for everything, he knew…

"Now, then," Nebulon finally spoke up, the hardened voice of his fading into something softer and perkier, "Where was I…? Oh yes, a revolution. Now, what Delete just said is indeed true—unless we're somehow virtually invincible, Machinos will rip us apart like wet sod. He's got at least one thousand experienced soldiers in his army, now, maybe even more…what with how things have been going…" He scoffed and looked off to the side. "Anyway, the way I see it, there's one, and only one, way to fix that."

He then looked over at Ruben. "Ruben, you're the one with the good sense of navigation, am I correct?" Ruben looked at him uneasily, then nodded. "Good. Now, which cybersite is the nearest to us, that you can think of at the moment?"

Ruben paused, looking up toward a particular tree branch, then finally looked down at Nebulon and said, "I think that the nearest town is…um…well, I remember passing by Sensible Flats not too long ago…a few weeks ago, I think. Anyway, it's just past that chasm…we just keep following it until we reach the edge of town." He took a breath. "Why do you ask?"

Nebulon grinned cockily. "Well, we need to start somewhere with the gathering of the new recruits."

Ruben blinked, then snickered nervously and finally said, "Uh…you actually mean that we're going to gather a bunch of other Cyberspacians, send them into battle against a merciless tyrant, possibly kill a whole bunch of 'em—"

"But Ruben, you have to ask yourself, 'is it worth it?'" Nebulon told him, his voice tone now grave. "And believe me, it will be worth it once we see the daylight for once in our miserable lives. Tell me, have any of you ever for once thought that there could be a possible way to clear the darkness from our souls and reopen them? Have you ever thought that there could be someone out there who could overthrow Machinos once and for all? Have you ever considered that future generations will suffer the blows of this tyranny, even after we're long gone?"

Ruben looked at him awhile, then finally nodded. "I suppose you're right," he sighed. "But in order to get to Sensible Flats by morning we're going to need to start out as soon as possible…and it's already pitch-black out here."

"The horses know where they're going." Revel shrugged. "And the sooner we make it out there, the better. All of us know for sure that Machinos isn't going to falter his pace until he's reached Serentia, and in that time we've got to do something about it."

Ruben groaned in frustration, then rolled his eyes and got to his feet. "Very well, then," he sighed, straightening out his shirt almost nervously. "We'll start for the chasm now. Buzz?" He looked up toward the stocky robot, who had now succeeded in burying himself almost entirely under the leaves, trying to conceal himself from view. "Buzz, what are you doing? Get down here and let's get moving!"

Buzz made an unintelligible groaning noise, but came out from under the leaf pile, though a tad reluctant, and went down to join the others, almost tripping again in the process. His sudden show of apathy confused the ebony feline; still, he knew that there were more important matters to attend to.

"Well…let's go," he finally said, turning around and starting to head toward the horses, who were tethered to several trees nearby…

"It's been fully restored," Globus Jayon told them, a trace of triumph in her voice as she handed the now faintly glowing amulet over to the kids and their alternates. "But only for a short amount of time; it was the most I could do. Now, since this amulet has access to the Portal already, all you need to do is concentrate on this one spot and it'll open there. But…" She sighed before continuing with her explanation. "Because of the power lackage as time wanes, it'll only remain intact for a period of ten seconds. Do you think that you can manage in that time?"

"Sure thing," Matthew told her, grinning as he took the amulet in his hand and held it up to his face. "If it goes through, we can handle it." He then turned to Jacqueline, Zeny, and Codebird. "You ready to go, you guys?"

Codebird sighed and nodded. "Yeah," he said, his voice sounding rather forced as he looked over at the kids and Digit, "But…the power'll still be there for awhile, right? Because, you know, we haven't really spent much time with our alternates, and they were gone so long in our world—"

"She said it'll only remain at full power for a short amount of time," Matthew told him firmly, looking over his shoulder at the scruffy bird. "And because of that we have to use it while we still have the power to spare. Which means we're going to have to activate the portal now, or never."

"Okay." Codebird sniffed once, then looked over at Digit and the others before looking back at Matthew. "But…I just don't want to leave them now. We just reunited for the first time in years, and now, after such a short time, we have to go back to _that _place…?"

"There's nothing else we can do," Zeny told him, kneeling down next to him and placing her hand on his shoulder. "Not unless they want to come with us, which I doubt they'll actually follow through with…"

The Cybersquad, meanwhile, were looking at their alternates; Jackie and Digit now had looks on their faces that suggested that they wanted to go with them, but didn't have a clue as to what to do, or say. Matt finally joined in with this as well, but Inez remained silent. She knew that if she left and went there, there was a fine chance that she may never come back. What had happened with the Portal of Forty at that cliff was sheer luck, nothing more. The odds were still just as good that they might've been crushed from impact at the bottom of that canyon…

But while she was thinking about the negatives in that world of tyranny, something else surfaced, at long last. Paradox…she had forgotten about him for awhile, but now he had come back into her mind, a clear memory now…especially the kiss that they had shared near the waterfall. She knew that it may very well have been obscene, but she had enjoyed it, and Paradox had loved her so much…she said that it couldn't have worked out, clearly, but the robot seemed pretty crushed afterward. And she had never gotten to even say a simple "bye" to him…he had turned tail and fled the moment that the Freedom Fighters had run off into the forest for their attack. Although she doubted that Paradox would still reminisce about this, she still felt as if she owed him something…

Doubtful, though her decision had been made, she looked over at Matt, who looked at her back the same way; he then looked over at Jackie, who looked over at Digit. The four were silent for a few more moments before Matt finally stepped forward.

"No need to miss us; we're coming with you," he told them firmly, crossing his arms as he stood next to Matthew. "Although we may be taking a few risks here and there, we still want to go back. Right, guys?"

Inez and Jackie nodded, then stepped forward as well, while Digit ran forward and quickly stopped beside Codebird, who grinned at him. Matthew stared at them for some time, the look on his face suggesting that perhaps this wasn't a good idea. "What about that other evil guy?" he finally asked. "Wouldn't he…_try_ something while you're gone?"

The kids looked at each other, for they had never considered this. Inez replied, "As long as Hacker has limited power, and that Buzz and Delete are gone—at least, it seems that way—I doubt that he can manage to get away with anything. If I can remember correctly, unless he can somehow manage to re-retrieve the Crystal of Kalmoor I don't think he'll be able to come and go as he pleases." She licked her lips. "Not to mention that, after that beating you gave him, Jacqueline, he seems a little freaked out by the entire thing…"

"Eh, it happens," Jacqueline replied, shrugging. "It's one of my jobs; what can I say?"

Jackie shook her head in disgust, while Zeny replied, "Well, if you really want to, I suppose that we can make an exception. But…well, are you sure that you really want to go back to Machinos's world? You didn't seem to have a very good time the last time you went there…"

"Bah, Machinos is old news," Matt replied coolly, waving his hand. "We can manage…we managed it okay before, didn't we?"

"Yeah, if you can call getting ripped apart by a blind dog, falling off a cliff, and receiving numerous injuries is okay," Jacqueline retorted, crossing her arms. Matt glared at her, but decided that now wasn't the time to start a fight with anyone—not verbally, and definitely not physically.

Matthew was silent for a few moments, then he looked down at the amulet before finally looking up at the kids again. Sighing in defeat, he finally said, although his voice tone suggested that in his mind it was still undecided, "Very well, then. You may come with us…but take to mind that, unless we can successfully uncover the Portal of Forty in due time, you're going to be stuck there for quite awhile."

"We're well-aware of that," Inez replied, nodding, "And our answer stays."

Matthew shrugged, then finally murmured "Okay" and thus drew all of his concentration onto the amulet. For awhile all was silent as he thought, his tongue out, concentrating, on the Portal of Forty…and, sure enough, after a few moments the amulet's glow increased, and finally a bright light appeared over their heads and was immediately replaced by the swirling mass of the Portal of Forty. Sighing, Matthew looked up, then back, then, knowing that they only had a limited amount of time, quickly leapt up into the swirling color and disappeared from view.

Zeny, Jacqueline, and Codebird followed shortly afterward, while the kids leapt in as well, not even bothering to give it second thoughts—their minds seemed to be made up for the time being. Digit managed to successfully engulf himself within the light just as it closed up behind them.

The first rays of dawn were just beginning to flicker over the horizon as the group of riders, many of them looking very haggard, finally arrived at the entrance to Sensible Flats. Their horses were sweating (they had ridden in a canter for almost half of the way) and they themselves appeared to be at lack of rest, but at least they had achieved their goal: they had made it to Sensible Flats successfully, just before dawn.

The group dismounted near the sheriff's station, then tethered their horses to one of the nearby posts used for things such as this and, still looking worn out, treaded over near the walls. Delete, being the childish creature that he was, curled up and fell asleep the moment that he managed to get into a comfortable position on the wooden floor, while Revel flopped down beside him.

"We can rest here," he panted, wiping some sweat from his brow and lying down next to Delete, and very closely, too—almost a little too closely, in fact. "I don't think that anyone's gonna be up for a few more hours yet."

"Yeah, he's right," Ruben agreed, appearing just as worn out as Revel was. "Nebulon isn't planning on even catching anyone's attention 'till mid-morning…that's usually when everyone is out on the roads, which makes it the perfect spot to catch some attention…um, yeah, of course."

Abigail raised an eyebrow. "Ruben, dear, has Nebulon even _told_ you how he's going to catch their attention?" she asked him. "He'd have to do something pretty drastic…"

"No, he didn't," Ruben sighed, "But it doesn't matter right now, Mom. I need to go lie down for awhile…my limbs are stiff…God, I can barely move them as is…" He then trudged over to the wall, slumped down beside the railings, and was out in a moment.

Abigail looked over at Nebulon, who was now sprawled out on one of the steps, then over, further down the porch…in time to see Buzz…although, unlike the others, he wasn't sleeping at all, even though he did appear very overworked. He was leaning against the wall, staring down at the boards, the expression on his face suggesting that he was horribly nervous. Concerned, Abigail stared at him a few moments more, then finally trod up the steps—she was careful as so to not step on Nebulon—and slowly approached him.

He looked up in time to see her, and was startled for a moment, but quickly recovered and, sighing, looked up at her. "Yeah, what do you want?" he asked, his voice sounding just as worn-out as his body was.

"Hmm…" Abigail sighed. "Buzz, you've been acting very…_strange_ lately, and from what I saw of you in the earlier times—and from what your brother told me—that's not the way you should be acting. Is there something wrong with you? Machinos didn't do anything too bad to you, did he?"

Buzz stared back at her and for a moment had the sudden urge to inform her of what he was actually here for, but thought twice about it; the truth might cause the whole lot of them to turn against him, and that wasn't what Machinos intended. Sighing, he finally shook his head and replied, looking back down at the floor, "No…no. I'm just a little…nervous, is all."

"About what?"

"About…things." Buzz found himself unable to think up any other excuse besides that Machinos had won him over to the side of tyranny by temptation of power, and that he had almost crushed his lungs to scrap metal, which was all true, in fact. He couldn't tell her, of course. He couldn't. "You know, like…um…ur…" He looked off to the side, perspiring nervously. "I—I just don't know if 'dis is gonna work out, is all."

Abigail smiled. "You need not worry about that," she told him, crossing her arms. "I think that Nebulon knows very well of what he's doing, and if not, I'm sure that someone else will manage to make this work." She patted him on the head, a gesture that made him flinch slightly from the inside. "It's nothing to be nervous about, trust me."

She then walked off, leaving Buzz to himself again. _God, if only you knew_, Buzz thought to himself as he watched Abigail depart, his mood not changed at all and almost worsened due to the fact that he had lied…again…

It was about ten in the morning when the kids fell out of the Portal of Forty, landing, ironically, in a patch of woodland directly near Sensible Flats. Several of the group let out shouts of pain and surprise as they struck some stray branches, Digit unfortunately managing to land at the top of another tree (and rather hard, at that) as the Portal closed up behind them entirely in a rush of wind. Still groaning slightly, they staggered to their feet, Matthew looking around him before taking a deep breath inwards and rubbing the side of his head.

"Hmm…I recognize that forked tree…that one over there," he said, pointing toward a distinct tree hidden within the others. "We must be somewhere near Sensible Flats…right on the outskirts, I believe. It's a long walk to the main town itself, though…gotta cross about two or three miles of desert, and that's a rather difficult task when we have no horse…"

"Yeah, what's happened to Skyrider, anyway?" Codebird asked, getting up and looking around the forest, almost expecting the robotic, silver horse to come charging out from between the trees at any second. "I hope she's okay…"

"She should be," Zeny told him. "We were near…the creek, I believe, when the Portal finally took us through…and she doesn't wander too much…so she should still be there."

"Should we go check?"

"No, not right now," Zeny told him, shaking her head. "First things first. First off, we need to find some replacement for this clothing—" She tugged at the lavender dress that she was still wearing—"And we need to go check up on what went on around here while we were gone. Hopefully it was nothing too bad…"

"This place is bad enough as it is," Jacqueline muttered, brushing some leaves out of her greatly matted hair before looking toward the direction of the desert. "Well, come on…we need to get an early start before high noon. Trust me, you do _not_ want to be caught on the sand at high noon. It scorches like heck…"

"Obvious," Zeny muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes, but she agreed to it anyway. "Either way, it's a good idea, Jacqueline…although we may already be too late, but what the heck, let's give it a shot while we've still got the time."

"Whatever," Matt finally said, darting forward. "Come on, let's move it!"

The others stared after him as he left over the sand, then Jacqueline turned to Jackie and asked, "Is he always like this?"

"Hey, try going on missions with him," Jackie replied. "He's done a whole lot more than this, trust me on that one."

"I normally don't trust many people, but I'll make an exception," Jacqueline replied, nodding as she looked off in the redhead's direction.

"Gee, who knew that there were this many people around in the mornin'?" Delete said aloud to himself as he looked around at the crowd, making sure to keep near his own group as so not to get separated—because, of course, he would look like a child, and he wouldn't have a clue as to what to do if Nebulon's plan actually worked.

"You'd be surprised," Ruben replied, raising his eyebrows. He adjusted Binky, still lounging and ignoring the bustling about her, onto his other shoulder. "I've done a lot of traveling, and it seems to be a tradition to get up this early in the morning…the best things are done early morning, or so the term goes…"

"Which makes it all the better," Nebulon replied cockily, slowing to a halt. They were now in the center of the Town Square, and, of course, there were quite a lot of people in this area. "Now, then…let's draw some attention to the situation."

It was then that he reached inside his shirt and from within it drew out a pistol, gleaming silver in the light and seemingly loaded. Delete whimpered and clapped both hands to his mouth, while Ruben looked thoroughly surprised and Abigail's eyes widened. Buzz sighed and looked off toward another direction; once again he was being apathetic toward the entire situation.

Nebulon raised the pistol up, then, swift as anything, fired two shots into the air, causing, of course, a deafening noise and provoking the attention of the citizens around them—including the alternate Sheriff Judy. As the crowd moved away from Nebulon, still standing tough and holding the pistol up, Judy pushed past the stirred citizens and grabbed Nebulon around the arm, thrusting it downward and causing him to drop the pistol, which fell in the dust.

"Just what in tarnation d'ya think you're doing!" she demanded, looking him directly in the eye. "We don't _allow_ pistols in this part of the town; you should know that by now!"

"Sincere apologies, ma'am," Nebulon replied, grinning at her for thought's sake, "But I do believe that we have some business to take care of around here, and I just thought that perhaps we could stir the crowd into listening to us."

"Hmph," the sheriff replied. "And just what kind of business may that be?"

"I can explain everything to you later, in your office," Nebulon replied. "It's something rather important and I think that it's best to be addressed in private."

Judy looked over him a few more moments, then finally released her grip from his hand and said, crossing her arms, "Fine. Come with me to my office, then…but if you try anything funny I'll have you thrown in the slammer faster than you can move your stinkin' feet. Do I make myself clear on that?"

"Clear as water," Nebulon replied.

"Good." The sheriff then turned around and began to head off toward the building that they had taken their resting stop in front of earlier. "Come with me, then. But you'd better offer a good explanation as to why you did this, mark my words. Violation of the laws here is punishable by death."

"Such a lovely place," Nebulon replied, sounding just as cocky as he had been before.

"I'm warning you, one more smart word—"

"I apologize."

"You'd better be sincere this time." She then took a ring of keys out from her belt and, fingering through them, finally sought out the correct key and placed it in the door's lock. "Now, then," she said, turning the key sideways and pushing the door open, "Come on inside."

Nebulon grinned, then stepped inside, followed by Delete, Buzz, and Ruben. After the cat creature made sure that the door was closed behind him, the four slowly walked up to the line of chairs positioned near the sheriff's desk and quickly took their seats, just as the alternate Judy took her seat behind the table, folding her hands together calmly.

"Now, then," she said, "Just what explanation are you offering for this show of behavior, hmm?"

"Well, Miss Judy, ma'am, we…" Nebulon cleared his throat, then nudged Buzz, who was sitting next to him, in the side. Buzz looked over at him, then, realizing what he was getting at, quickly nodded his head and made eye contact with the sheriff, sitting up straight and trying to get himself to look as authentic as possible.

"What Nebulon means to say is, he fired 'da pistol because we wanted to draw some attention to 'da crowd…and for what reason, you ask? Well, it's actually kinda simple, but we wanted to discuss it in private with youse before any word leaked out toward 'da crowd out 'dere. Anyway…" He played with his fingers nervously and looked off to the side, then finally replied, his gaze now dead serious, "We want to revolt against Machinos, and we need to gather an army."

Judy's eyes widened, and she placed her hands on her desk. "Well, if that ain't the most dad-ratted thing I've ever heard!" she remarked, sounding clearly impressed. "Not many people have actually succeeded in revolting against Machinos. I'm thinkin' you're either all crazy, or just plain brave."

"Well…sort of," Ruben told her. "What our purpose is here is, we need to gather at least a few soldiers to help side with us in the revolt…we're a group of eight altogether, I think, but I don't think that it'll do much help against Machinos's army. You know how many soldiers he has on his side, I'll bet…"

Judy nodded gravely. "They rode through our town one night," she told him. "About one or two hundred of 'em. Burnt down houses, knocked over civilians—why, one even attempted to murder a few children…" She shook her head. "If you're plannin' to revolt I'll help in any way possible, although I doubt that success is gonna work fer you in this case."

"We're extremely grateful," Nebulon told her, standing up and making a light bow to her before continuing. "Now, then, in order to gather the troops we need to draw more attention than just a few gunshot fires. Thus, I want Ruben here to grab some attention to the crowd…think you can make it happen?"

Judy thought for a few moments, then nodded. "The pedestal is all yours," she agreed.

"Whew, it's about time we made it over that sand!" Digit remarked, wiping the sweat from his brow and panting hoarsely as he landed near one of the end buildings at Sensible Flats. "I'm toast…I think I could really use a drink of water right about now…"

"We all could, Digit," Jackie replied, rubbing her throat as she stepped into the building's shade and leaned against a nearby rain barrel (empty, of course; no rain had fallen on Sensible Flats for quite awhile, now). "But I don't think that they're going to give us any…not right now, anyway. They won't bring it to us, and I don't want to walk any further…"

Jacqueline was about to make a remark, but thought twice about it and rolled her eyes instead.

"Wow, look at all these people!" Matt remarked, staring at the large crowd of civilians that had formed in the center of the town, cutting off all view from the other side almost entirely. "Wonder what's going on down there?"

Matthew grinned. "Only one way to find out," he replied, before running forward and eventually disappearing into the crowd. Matt looked after him, sighed, then followed him, although, being younger than Matthew was by a few years, it was tougher for him to maneuver.

Pushing his way through a few more citizens, he finally reached the front of the crowd, and, although a rather portly old man was blocking his view somewhat, he could see what they had all been staring at. A black cat creature—it took Matt awhile to recollect, but he eventually, much to his surprise, recognized it as Ruben—was standing atop a large wooden platform, draped in green-and-black banners and ribbons, along with a few others whom the boy couldn't see very well in the background. Ruben had just begun what appeared to be a rather harsh speech, and he spoke very loudly and very clearly, as so everyone in the crowd—the girls, Digit, and Matt included—could hear word for word what he was saying:

"My comrades!" he called out into the crowd. "We have brought you all in front of this platform for a reason, and a rather urgent one, at that! But before I begin, I must ask you…how many times have you lived in fear of Machinos? How many times has the tyrant invaded your town and trashed your property? How many times has he threatened to kill you? How many lives has he taken from your bloodline?!"

At this there were several murmurs among the crowd. Matt, his eyes slightly wide with curiosity, continued to stare up at the platform as Ruben continued, after the crowd had dimmed into silence:

"Too many, my comrades, too many. Thus, we must do something about it! We cannot live in fear any longer! We cannot hide in the shadows anymore! We must step into the light! We must fight for our freedom! We must _REVOLT_!"

There were several more excited murmurs from the crowd; Matt thought he could hear the shouts of agreement from one end of the cluster. Ruben, glad that he was getting to them, nodded, then thrust his hands backward and boomed, taking a hard step forward:

"Yes, the time has come to show just how we feel about Machinos! War will be among us! We will fight to the death, and it shall be a bloody one, a horribly bloody one, but the repayment is great! We will have earned our freedom once and for all! Machinos will be no more! We will be free to live as we want!" He then thrust one fist into the air and yelled: "_WHO IS IN AGREEMENT WITH THE PROPHECY_?!"

At this action, almost everyone in the crowd gave a loud cheer of agreement and repeated Ruben's action, breaking out into more excited chatter. Ruben grinned and crossed his arms, then called out one last thing before finally turning around and heading back toward the back of the platform:

"We need our faithful patriots, my comrades! Thus, if any of you agree upon taking place in the fight for freedom, we shall be accepting registration near the sheriff's office!"

As soon as he disappeared, the crowd, now filled with excited murmurs and shouts, slowly made their way away from the platform and went in different directions, quite a few of the men heading in the direction of the sheriff's office. Matt blinked, then looked around just as Inez, Jackie, and Digit came running up, followed closely by Zeny, Jacqueline, and Codebird. Like Matt, all of them looked thoroughly surprised.

"That was Ruben!" Digit remarked.

"I know it was Ruben." Matt nodded. "But what was he talking about? He wants to go into war against Machinos or something? I don't get it…"

"Neither do I." Zeny shook her head. "But if it's enough to announce publicly, I think that it's got to be rather serious. War isn't something to be taken lightly." She looked around. "And where's Matthew?"

"He disappeared into the crowd before I could find him," Matt replied. "I think I saw him heading toward the sheriff's office with the other townspeople, though…maybe we could find him there."

"That's Matthew," Jacqueline muttered, rolling her eyes. "We haven't seen any action in months…figures that he'd try to make an excuse by signing up for a position in a war…"

She began to walk toward the sheriff's office, with the others trailing behind her. "Actually, I don't think that there's ever been a war here…a real one, that is," she explained to them as they made their way past a group of men who were also applying for positions in the newfound army. "Sure, we destroyed half of Machinos's army that one time, but that was just us, and they were kind of weak at that time as is." She brushed a lock of hair out of her eye. "No one's even thought of revolting against Machinos…ever, if I can recall correctly. Wonder who'd be daring enough to actually wage war against him…"

They had now approached the steps and were slowly ascending, every now and then having to squeeze their way past a few more of the men who wanted an application (naturally) before reaching the door, which, of course, was ajar. Digit took a glimpse inside through the window, but, since he couldn't get a very good view—the windows looked like they hadn't been cleaned in eons—he quickly discarded all hope of any results from that idea, and instead began to push his way past more civilians, heading toward the direction of the door.

Inez spotted him. "Didge, where are you going?" she asked, looking in the cybird's direction as he approached the threshold.

"I'm gonna find Matthew," Digit simply replied, before finally looking in and squeezing through the doorway before landing rather hard on the floor, nearly bruising his chest in the process. Groaning, thinking that there had to be a better way to get through a door from now on, he slowly got to his feet and walked over toward the sheriff's desk, now cleared of all things that a sheriff would usually have, and replaced with a stack of papers and a few bottles of India ink. The men wanting to apply had formed two lines—one on the left side of the desk, one on the right. They were all murmuring things to themselves, making it hard for the bird to hear what was going on—let alone find Matthew. He decided to walk up to the table and ask the people up there accepting applications—whoever they were—if they'd seen a tall, red-haired boy go through the line.

Shoving his way past a few more men, who responded with angry shouts, he made his way to the front of the desk, then placed both of his wings at the edges and slowly hoisted himself up, just as the unknown individual sitting on the left side of the desk handed one of the men his calligraphic application.

"Thank you for applying, sir," a voice chimed…a voice that Digit knew anywhere. "An' just remember, freedom is power. We'll see you in the training camps shortly."

The man grunted, then took the paper in his hand and, turning around, began to head back out the doorway. Digit looked after him, then looked over in the direction of the speaker just as he drew himself up fully, finally getting a good glimpse of the two accepting and filling out the forms…and at first, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Good God!" he shouted, provoking the shock of the two, along with a few of the other applicants. "Buzz! Delete! What the heck are you _doing_?!"

Buzz and Delete, recognizing Digit immediately, both turned to look at him, profound expressions of surprise on their faces, their eyes wide. Delete continued to stare at Digit, then looked over at Buzz, then finally brought one of his hands to his mouth.

"Uh-oh," he squeaked.


End file.
